•In 2020, President Kenyatta directed NMS to construct 24 hospitals after witnessing an expectant mother being turned away from a clinic with a seven-bed capacity.
•Uhuru presided over the groundbreaking for construction of the 24 hospitals across Nairobi in the 17 subcounties with a focus on the informal settlements.
The new Level 3 hospitals opened by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services have recorded 1,528 deliveries since February last year.
Another 500,000 adults have received in-patient and outpatient treatment.
According to data by the Ministry of Health, at least 483,153 child welfare clinics have been conducted in the facilities, with 3.7 million patients having been attended last year.
An additional 2.4 million have received healthcare services in the first six months of this year.
In 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed NMS to construct 24 hospitals after witnessing an expectant mother being turned away from a clinic with a seven-bed capacity.
Uhuru presided over the groundbreaking for construction of the 24 hospitals across Nairobi in the 17 subcounties with a focus on the informal settlements.
The President said this move would ensure residents access health services whenever they need them and decongest the Kenyatta National Hospital and Mama Lucy Hospital.
NMS on Wednesday commissioned three more new hospitals bringing the number to 20.
The Level 3 hospitals commissioned include Githurai, Baba Dogo and Ngara.
“Currently, Kenya is suffering a double burden of disease; communicable and non-communicable diseases coupled with emerging health threats such as Covid-19. When it comes to health, Nairobi's track record has not been so good,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
“Through prevention, we can ensure people do not require hospital care in the first place. With our focus now shifting to UHC, community health services will be critical in ensuring that health services are available at the lowest level of the community.”
The newly constructed hospitals comprise Levels 2 and 3 hospitals. The Level 2 hospitals have outpatient services.
Level 3 hospitals have both outpatient and inpatient services with each of the facilities having 16-25 in-patient bed capacity, maternity, theatre and a digital x-ray unit with a capacity to conduct 100 sessions a day.
A Level 2 health facility is also known as a dispensary and is run by clinical officers while a Level 3 facility is referred to as a health centre and is run by at least one doctor, clinical officers and nurses.
According to the ministry, more than 2,000 healthcare workers have been employed to ensure a population of 3.1 million people living in the informal settlements access quality and affordable health services.
They include 179 doctors, 200 clinical doctors, 900 nurses, 100 health record officers, 10 laboratory technicians, 100 nutritionists and members of the support staff.
Before the construction of these health facilities in the city, more than 47 per cent of the county’s five million residents relied on Kenyatta National Hospital as their first point of access to health facilities.
“As a result, KNH experienced congestion which unfortunately impacted health outcomes seeing the county record the worst health outcomes and disease burden,” Kagwe said.
“For instance, despite having the highest deliveries across the country, Nairobi ranked 3rd in maternal mortality besides having 17 per cent of all infants presenting malnourished.”
So far the president has commissioned 17 hospitals with the first being Uthiru Muthua Level 3 hospital in February last year.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris