Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya receives ultrasound machine from R4A-UK founder and president Dr Massimo Gozzelino /HANDOUT
Trans Nzoia has signed a multi-million partnership with a UK-based firm to improve maternal health in the county with focus on enhancing capacity of health workers ans equiping hospitals.
The deal will enable the county offer better maternal services at all its health facilities.
Governor George Natembeya signed the memorandum of understanding with Dr Massimo Gozzelino, founder and president of Rainbow for Africa UK (R4A-UK).
The agreement focus on advancing maternal health in the region with a joint capacity building programme to provide advanced training for local healthcare workers and obstetricians to manage high risk pregnancies safely taking center stage.
Natembeya said the partnership is set to enhance maternal and neonatal healthcare in Trans Nzoia and its environs.
“This is a milestone partnership through which we will emsure our mothers access quality maternal services at county hospitals,” the governor said.
He
lauded R4A-UK for the donation of vital medical equipment such as ultrasound
machines and pledged full county cooperation for clinical training,
telemedicine and medical camps.
The collaboration specifically focuses on bolstering point-of-care ultrasound (Pocus) capabilities, bringing critical medical infrastructure to level 4 hospitals across Trans Nzoia and neighbouring counties.
The partnership involves several other key initiatives to improve community healthcare through direct donation of ultra sound machines, equipping medical staff and midwives with specialised obstetric ultrasound and high-risk pregnancy management skills.
The county will also benefit from expansion of telemedicine, medical outreach camps and joint UK-Africa research to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.
Natembeya commended Prof Ferdinand Nang'ole for his transformative surgical camps and immense contributions to the region's healthcare through life-changing reconstructive surgeries on burn victims and others in need at Wamalwa Kijana Teaching and Referral Hospital.
The county boss said succesful performance of specialised reconstructive procedures bring complex urban medical expertise directly to underserved communities in Kitale.
Gozzelino said R4A-UK had donated advanced ultrasound machines to local health facilities, including the newly launched St Teresa Mother and Baby Hospital and Wamalwa Kijana hospital.
He underscored the urgent need for community outreaches, arguing that the partnership will have a continuation of medical research initiatives and joint medical camps targeting underserved and rural demographics carried out in all subcounties of Trans Nzoia county.
Gozzelino also made a donation of a portable ultrasound probes to the county as a landmark gesture of support for maternal and community health.
Nang'ole called for efforts to reduce mortality rates in Trans Nzoia county, adding that specialised surgical, trauma and oncology care and having patients gain access to advanced medicine will to the prevention of deaths.
Shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons is a major impediment to specialised healthcare in Kenya.
