The Sh6 billion Kakamega County Teaching and Referral Hospital will begin operations in July next year, Governor Wycliffe Oparanya said yesterday.
Oparanya said the county is looking for Sh2 billion to buy equipment for the facility.
He said they had signed an MoU with Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology to begin teaching services at the hospital by September 2018.
“We have also agreed with the government of India to periodically send their doctors to deal with complicated health issues because we still have a shortage of medical consultants,” Oparanya said.
When complete, the 500-bed facility will become the first referral hospital in Western region.
Patients from Vihiga, Bungoma and Busia are current referred to the Kakamega County General Hospital, which currently serves as a referral unit. Complicated cases are then referred to either Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching or Referral Hospital in Kisumu or the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.
Oparanya said the county has also set up a cancer treatment centre and hired an expert to manage it. The centre is also expected to become the first cancer unit in Western once operational.
Oparanya was speaking when he unveiled the Kakamega County Maternal Child Health and Family Planning Act at Golf hotel in Kakamega town yesterday.
Under the act, expectant mothers receive Sh2,000 on their fourth antenatal visit to hospital, another Sh2,000 for delivering in a health facility and another similar pay for going back for check-up after a month.
