New hospital to relieve pressure off MTRH as cancer cases surge

Chairman of the MTRH board Sitoyo Lopokoit speaks during commissioning of work at the new multi-specialty hospital at Kiplombe in Eldoret 

The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret is be relieved in its cancer care by the construction of a new facility: Moi Referral Multi-Specially Hospital.

Chairman of the hospital board Sitoyo Lopokoit said the new hospital will ease congestion at the MTRH and play a great role in research and training operations.

MTRH handles more than 20,000 cancer patients annually, putting pressure on existing facilities and resources

“This new hospital will go a long way to improving our health services and put our country at a higher level in specialised care services,” he said.

It will have 60 ICU beds and another 120 High Dependency Units, making it the largest with such facilities in the region.

Engineers have already hit the ground running after President William Ruto directed that the first phase of the Sh50 billion project be completed in 18 months.

Once completed, it will be one of Ruto’s major achievements and transformative projects in the health sector, putting the country at a higher level in medicine.

Lopokoit said MTRH handles more than 5 million patients and carries out more than 17,000 surgeries in a year.

He said the hospital, with a bed capacity of about 1,200, serves patients from 24 counties in the western part of the country.

Ruto’s adviser on health Dr Wilson Aruasa, who is among those who conceptualised the project, has said the new facility will be a game changer that will also promote training and medical tourism in the country.

Dr Aruasa formerly served as the CEO at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and worked on initial plans for the new hospital, which is being put up on 200 acres at Kiplombe near the Eldoret airstrip.

“The new facility, a key Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda project, will facilitate Universal Health Coverage through increasing Comprehensive and Specialised hospital beds or service,” Dr Aruasa said.

Dr Aruasa says the new facility will increase capacity for comprehensive and specialised hospital beds or service from Kenya’s current 13 per 10,000 people towards the World Health Organisation’s standard of at least 25 per 10,000 people.