Nakuru county will employ 200 nurses to address the shortage of health workers.
Governor Lee Kinyanjui said the 1,200 nurses
in the county are
overworked and the quality of services compromised.
"We want to ensure that shortage of staff will not hinder delivery
of quality service,” he said.
He spoke on Thursday during the commissioning of a Sh3.6 million dialysis machine donated by the Safaricom Foundation to the Nakuru Level 5 Hospital.
The hospital’s Medical Superintendent Joseph Mburu said the renal unit has 16 functional dialysis machine which are still not enough to cater for the patients currently seeking the services.
“We currently have more than 100 patients every day under the programme, some as young as five and an increase in the number of the machines will reduce the waiting time,” Dr Mburu said.
The unit attends to between 25 and 30 patients every day who are served during the day.
Due to the shortage of medical staff at the hospital, the unit cannot run on a 24-hour basis
Kinyanjui said the new changes will make the hospital fit to offer training to medical students.
He said that due to the shortage of medical staff in key departments, plans are underway to change the face of the hospital and streamline service delivery.
The governor noted that oncological services will be available at the hospital in a period of one month.
“Our aim is to reduce movement by the cancer patients to far away hospitals,” he said.
Kinyanjui said the county government will be partnering with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to achieve a 70 percent registration of members in the county by June.
Safaricom Regional Head of Department Sales and Operations James Maitai said the decision to donate the dialysis machine was necessitaed by the need for the service considering that the hospital serves patients from a vast region.
Health Chief Officer Dr. Samwel Mwaura vowed to ensure the facility offers good services to the patients.