The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital is experiencing an increase in congestion of patients, including some from neiighbouring countries seeking specialised treatment.
The hospital's CEO Dr Phillip Kirwa on Monday said the hospital is receiving as high as 5,000 patients on some days but averagely 2,500 patients on most days.
Kirwa says the hospital has a limited bed capacity of 1,403 and faces a shortage of medical staff making it struggle to handle the increasing number of patients.
“Many of our clinics handle more than 300 patients daily and we are now experiencing long queues of patients in most units," Kirwa said.
He was speaking at the hospital during a tour by the parliamentary commiitee on implementation whicu chaired Budalangi MP Raphael Wanjala.
The MPs are carrying out a your intended to assess the implementation of recommendations contained in the Report by the Departmental Committee on Health on the status of National Referral Hospitals including the Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital (MTRH).
The commmiitee is also lookig into the third report of the Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity on Employment diversity Audit in Public Institutions.
The committee will be in Eldoret for two days at MTRH and also at othet projects in Uasin Gishu and Baringo county before moving to other regions.
Dr Kirwa said the hospital had opted to handle some of the patients on booking basis depending on their condtions.
He said clinics like those for dialysis and chemotherapy had a high number of patients many of whom were handled on booking arrangements.
Dr Kirwa has however thanked President William Ruto and the Ministry of Health for ensuring that the hospital gets necessary support to serve kenyans and patients from other countries.
“We get patients from several countries like Uganda, Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda amomg others,” Kirwa said.
He said the hospital requires additional staff including nurses and other specialists to handle the high number of patients.
Wanjala said the hospital requires additional funding and support in terms of hiring additional staff to be able to opeerate effectively.
“We are impressed with the work being done at MTRH and we will support additional funding for the hospital,” Wanjala said.
