National hospital unveils grand expansion plan

Two weeks ago new life flowered at Kenyatta National Hospital even as staff fought hard to clear their heavily overloaded in-trays.

The hospital’s capacity to handle deliveries and newborns had been stretched beyond capacity after Nairobi County workers went on strike leading to the closure of Pumwani Maternity Hospital that handles the majority of deliveries in the city.

KNH has only 15 incubators, and midwives were at times forced to accommodate three to four preterm babies in some incubators.

The standard capacity of the unit is 50 newborns, but as of Friday they were housing between 115 and138 according to F. A. Ogongo, the nurse in charge of the unit.

Such is the sorry state of the newborn’ unit that the board has developed an ambitious masterplan for its expansion to tackle inefficiencies and improve services.

According to the administration, the facility is old and most equipment outdated while population continues to increase.

“A ward which is supposed to accommodate 35 mothers at the maternity wing is now being occupied by more than 80 mothers,” said acting chief executive Simeon Monda. 

In some of the general wards, patients are forced to share beds while at the Accident and Emergency Unit patients sleep on the floor for lack of beds. The hospital has a ward capacity of 1,800 beds but accommodates over 3,000 patients on any given day.

The administration plans to establish a multi-billion-shilling project on its 45.7 acres of vacant land. Part of the funding is already available.

DONOR FUNDING

In an interview with the Sunday Nation, Mr Monda said the projects include a Sh2.4 billion paediatric unit and an emergency burns centre.

The project has already received donor funding to the tune of Sh900 million with the ground-breaking ceremony scheduled for November 1.

Dr Monda said Sh1 billion will buy equipment and Sh1.4 billion will be used for construction of the building, expected to take two years to complete. Tenders have already been advertised.

“Many of the projects should have begun within two years according to plan. We have written to the Treasury to guide us on how to approach the projects as we seek public-private partnership,” said Dr Monda.

The CEO said the hospital, in conjunction with the University of Nairobi and the African Development Bank, will also set up the East Africa Kidney Institute which is expected to ease the agony renal patients have to bear with nine dialysis machines against a total need of 250. The bank has already given Sh1.8 billion as part of the funding, although the project might take longer to start.

In addition, Dr Monda said procurement of cancer management equipment known as linear accelerators is under way as the government has already given Sh300 million to the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) for the process.

“The hospital has only one operational cancer machine,” said Dr Monda.

Consequently, patients stay in the waiting list for up to six months before they can receive their first treatment, he said.

Also in the masterplan is a day care centre meant to control congestion and perform minor operations next to the Casualty Unit.

Already Sh145 million has been made available to the hospital for this purpose, but it falls Sh350 million short of the actual requirement.

The management also intends to construct four theatres each with 24 beds.

They plan to establish a 600-bed capacity public children’s hospital with 20 ICU beds since the current children’s unit has a capacity of 128 but accommodates 600 children at any given time. The hospital will also build 2,000 l houses for staff and students and other interested tenants to generate additional income.