Work starts on Sh239m maternity wing at Bungoma Referral

Construction has begun on a new 250-bed capacity maternity complex at Bungoma County Referral Hospital.

The complex will have 216 beds at the main facility and 38 at the pediatric unit.

The new facility will ease congestion in the wards and improve essential maternal health services support. 

The current buildings hosting the Bungoma Referral Hospital were built in 1952.

Governor  Wycliffe Wangamati said the new facility will afford ample space to pregnant women and mothers nursing their babies.

“With this facility, we have sorted the issue of space especially for our mothers,” Wangamati said. 

On Thursday deputy governor Charles Ngome handed over the site of the complex to the contractor.

Ngome said that it was a milestone for the county government in implementing such a project.

He said congestion at Bungoma County Referral Hospital caused by an acute shortage of beds had forced patients to seek services in private hospitals.

“We are working hard to improve the primary health care and ensure that pregnant mothers deliver in good health facilities,” Ngome said.

Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi said that the infrastructural development and expansion of the health facilities will help improve health outcomes. 

He said the hospital expansion will ensure that the myriads of challenges facing the health departments are wiped out.

“I'm happy that the challenges facing the county government in infrastructural development in the county referral hospital will not be there anymore,” Wamunyinyi said.

The lawmaker said the facility will reduce congestion and asked the county government to improve drugs supply and employ more health practitioners. 

He also called on the contractor to fast-track the construction process so that it is completed on time.

The five-storey building will host three theatres, a pediatric ward, an antenatal clinic, doctor’s consultation rooms and administrative offices.

Health cunty executive Antony Walela said the complex will be completed in 18 months.

Walela said the provision of quality healthcare in the county is limited by personnel, infrastructure and drugs, factors critical to better health service provision. 

“With the new structure, we hope to create more space to enable us even have specialist personnel on board,” Walela said.

On Tuesday, the department of health officially handed over a site for construction of another maternity block at Sirisia subcounty hospital.

The new maternity wing will have a 100-bed capacity to add to its current 31 beds. 

A functional theatre, with a maternal and child health section, is another of the additional works to be done at the Sirisia hospital.

The project is estimated to be completed in a year. 

(edited by O. Owino)

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