•A Level 3 facility is referred to as a health centre and is run by at least one doctor, clinical officers and nurses.
•With the new facilities accessible and operational, residents will save time and money spent seeking health services from KNH and other hospitals like Mbagathi.
Image: NMS
The Nairobi Metropolitan Services has upgraded the Kayole 2 Health Centre to a level 4 facility.
This means that the hospital can now issue referral letters to other facilities.
According to the Mohammed Badi-led entity, early this month on August 3, 2022, the facility opened a theatre and has since performed its fourth caesarian section
“The facility has a catchment area of 187,000 with 500 monthly child deliveries and a daily average of 500 patients,” says NMS.
Located in Nairobi’s Eastlands, Kayole 2 Hospital is the fourth busiest hospital after Mama lucy, Mbagathi and Pumwani hospitals.
At the same time, NMS is in the process of operationalizing 12 theatres across various hospitals in Nairobi.
This will ensure the accessibility of all health care services.
Early this month, data from the Ministry of Health revealed that the new Level 3 hospitals opened by NMS have recorded 1,528 deliveries since February last year.
Another 500,000 adults have received in-patient and outpatient treatment.
According to data by the Ministry of Health, at least 483,153 child welfare clinics have been conducted in the facilities, with 3.7 million patients having attended last year.
An additional 2.4 million have received healthcare services in the first six months of this year.
NMS has commissioned 20 level two and three out of 28 hospitals within Nairobi.
A Level 2 health facility is also known as a dispensary and is run by clinical officers.
It offers outpatient, VCT, tuberculosis tests, laboratory, antenatal and postnatal services, curative treatment and referrals to other facilities.
A Level 3 facility is referred to as a health centre and is run by at least one doctor, clinical officers and nurses.
It offers both outpatient and Inpatient services, Maternity Theatre, and Digital X-Ray Unit with a capacity to conduct 100 sessions a day.
They also focus on Primary Health care, Community Health Services and Chronic Diseases
Hospitals commissioned this year include Githurai, Baba Dogo, Mihang'o, Mwiki Health Centre and Ngara which are all level three. Kibera Level 3, Undugu, Ng'undu Kamulu, Ngomongo and Zimmerman were commissioned last year in September.
Gichagi in Kangemi, Mukuru Kwa Reuben, Tassia Kwa Ndege and Our Lady of Nazareth in Mukuru Kwa Njenga, which were opened in July last year.
The Uthiru, Kiamaiko, Soweto-Kayole, Ushirika and Green Park hospitals were opened in February last year.
President Uhuru Kenyatta who commissioned some of the hospitals also opened the Mathare-Korogocho Level 5 Hospital which was renamed Mama Margaret Kenyatta Hospital.
The remaining 8, according to NMS Director General Mohammed Badi, will be commissioned hopefully before the month ends.
With the new facilities accessible and operational, residents will save time and money spent seeking health services from KNH and other hospitals like Mbagathi.
The availability of Haemogram machines has made it possible for patients not to rush to Kenyatta hospital for laboratory services.
Haemogram machines are normally found in Level 4 hospitals but they are now in all the 14 facilities.
Pregnant women no longer have to travel far for maternity services as the Level three facilities have theatres and Level two have equipment ready just in case of any emergency case.
The new health facilities have reduced long queues at Kenyatta National Hospital, Mbagathi, Mama Lucy, Mutuini and Pumwani Maternity hospitals and ensured access to quality health services.
With all these hospitals, President Uhuru said health services can be made accessible anywhere in Nairobi without going to KNH.
“The public can now access health services and I am proud of the good work NMS director general and his team have done in building these facilities in remote areas,” he said.