Relief as Vihiga hospital gets new theatre
Governor Wilber Ottichilo when he inspected the Sh19 million threatre being constructed at Hamisi Sub County hospital. The facility is expected to help ease strain at the County Referral hospital in Mbale.
Referrals of patients to Vihiga County Referral Hospital in Mbale town are set to drop after a Sh19 million modern theatre was set up at Hamisi Sub-County Hospital to ease the burden on the county’s main health facility.
At least four hospitals, including Hamisi, have been referring major cases to the sole theatre at Vihiga Referral, straining its services.
Governor Wilber Ottichilo said the new Hamisi theatre will offer surgical services that were only available in Mbale.
The theatre will house two operating rooms, two-12-bed male and female wards, a laundry room, a gas room, surgeons' offices and a nurse station.
"The upcoming Hamisi Sub-County Hospital theatre will minimise referral cases to the Vihiga County Referral Hospital in Mbale," Dr Ottichilo said during a tour of the facility.
He said the theatre will cut turnaround time and costs for patients.
Hospital plaza
This comes as the devolved unit works on completing a Sh316 million hospital plaza near Vihiga Referral.
The ambitious project, which began in 2014, has stalled at several stages, with concerns raised that construction costs had risen from Sh250 million to Sh316 million.
The 250-bed hospital plaza was designed to boost referral services and ease the strain on Vihiga Referral.
In March, the Senate's County Public Accounts and Investments Committee gave the project a clean bill of health and allowed construction to proceed.
The devolved unit said a new contractor is on the site to complete the work.
Dr Ottichilo's administration said the project’s costs rose because new facilities would be added in the plaza.
