Go to health clinics and other facilities, CS Wafula tells Nyeri residents over Mwai Kibaki Hospital
A view of Mwai Kibaki Hospital in Nyeri county. Residents have been up in arms claiming the hospital was turning patients away and denying them treatment.
Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Wafula has urged Nyeri residents to seek medical services from health centres, level three and four hospitals before attending the Level six hospital in the County to avoid overburdening the facility.
Nyeri residents have been urged to seek medical services from health centres and level 3 and level 4 hospitals before they attend the Level 6 hospital in the county.
Speaking when she visited the Mwai Kibaki Hospital, Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Wafula said the move was to ensure that the locals do not overburden the Level 6 facility.
She said the hospital was in transition and would only attend to referrals and emergency cases in efforts to decongest it.
“I want to inform Nyeri residents that the hospital is fully functional… but I also want you to seek treatment in the dispensaries, health centres, Level 3 and Level 4 hospitals. Please seek your medical treatment in those facilities before coming to Level six,” she said.
She added that patients should only seek medical services from the facility if their ailment cannot be treated at the other hospitals and they have a referral, or they have an emergency.
The government is having plans to transform the Mwai Kibaki Hospital in Othaya, to a teaching and referral facility that will operate on its own.
Residents have been up in arms claiming the hospital was turning patients away and denying them treatment.
Ms Wafula noted that though the Level six hospital is yet to start operating to its full capacity, the government will work together with the county administration to ensure that the facility is fully equipped and with adequate work force.
“We are going to equip the facility with an MRI and a CT scan so that we can improve the level of health services given to our people as well as improve the work force so that the hospital can get to the standard of a level six health facility,” she said.
In addition, the health CS said the government was committed to improving health care by focusing on preventive primary health care while engaging Community Health Volunteers (CHVs).
“We are getting into an agreement with the county government to ensure that the CHVs are well taken care of in terms of stipends,” she said, adding that that would help them bring to focus issues of the people in the grassroots for people to get treatment.
