NMS to commission twelve new hospitals in city slums
The Soweto Hospital located in Embakasi East Constituency which was officially opened on February 19, 2021 by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) will open 12 new hospitals within a fortnight as it steps up access to affordable healthcare in informal settlements in Nairobi.
The 12 health facilities are part of 24 hospitals being put up by the Major General Mohamed Badi-led administration in the slums.
Mr Badi said the hospitals have already been fully-equipped and are ready for opening and that NMS is awaiting a go-ahead from President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“A total of 12 of the new hospitals are ready for commissioning. We are hoping in the next two weeks His Excellency the President will give us guidance on opening them,” said Mr Badi.
He was speaking when he appeared before the Senate Health Committee to answer queries based on the use of Covid-19 funds.
Already operational
Already, four of the new hospitals were unveiled by the President in February. They include Uthiru-Muthua Level 3 Hospital, Kiamaiko, Kayole-Soweto and Ushirika in Dandora, which are all Level 2 facilities (dispensaries).
The head of State also opened the dispensary at the Green Park terminus, which is also operational, ahead of the completion of the bus stage.
Two more — Gatina hospital in Kawangware and Gichagi in Kangemi — are also in operation, although they have not been officially commissioned.
The NMS boss further said that the remaining eight hospitals are also at an advanced stage of construction and will be complete by the first week of July.
The new hospitals are aimed at reducing walk-in patients’ burden on Kenyatta National Hospital, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Pumwani and Mbagathi hospitals.
Maj-Gen Badi explained that all the 24 hospitals were to be opened by end of June but NMS encountered some challenges such as acquisition of land, which delayed the process. But he said he was optimistic that all will be ready by July.
“We resolved the issues of land and we are now on course to have all the hospitals completed by July,” he said.
Built from scratch
NMS received Sh2 billion for the construction of the new hospitals in various slums across Nairobi including Viwandani, Majengo, Mathare, Kayole, Soweto, Korogocho, Kawangware, Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Mukuru Kwa Reuben, Kibera and Githurai 44.
The project involved building 19 hospitals from the scratch, where 10 were to be level 2 facilities and the rest level 3, while five more were to be rehabilitated at a cost of Sh300 million.
At the same time, the NMS boss also revealed that through savings, they have built three extra hospitals in addition to the 24.
“We were given money for the 24 hospitals but due to our savings on other departments, we asked Treasury to transfer the money to the health sector and we were given authority,” Badi added.
Already, NMS has employed 2,000 healthcare workers, among them 44 specialists, 679 nurses and 130 doctors to ensure that human resource is not a barrier to effective service delivery in all the 24 new hospitals and other facilities.
