The Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CGTRH) in Mombasa has renovated its adult emergency department.
The renovations include repainting and equipping the department and a refurbished laboratory next to the department, among others.
The facility is a five-star facility as it has a bed which can change positions, oxygen in all bedheads, point-of-care equipment and a crash cart to be able to resuscitate a patient.
Speaking during the launch, Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir said patients were going to experience a totally different journey this time around with the new adult CGTRH accident and emergency wing.
According to the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Iqbal Khandwalla, the facility is one of its kind in the region.
Dr. Khandwalla said the moment a patient lands, there would be an emergency technician that would attend to them from the triage and quickly assess the patient’s condition and, if need be, facilitate the fast tracking to see a doctor.
“This is the best emergency wing in the whole of Mombasa County. The Governor launched a paediatric emergency wing in 2023 and promised to build this facility and we thank him for delivering on his promise,” he said.
He added that the Emergency Medicine Kenya Foundation collaborated with the county government in doing the project, which cost approximately Sh23 million.
He said other donors, like Pharmacity Pharmaceuticals Limited, donated an ultrasound ECG machine costing about Sh30 million.
“With this, we promise that the experience the people are going to get from this facility will be unmatched,” he said.
The Governor who presided over the event said that the department previously had 14 beds, with the renovation adding them to 21 beds with oxygen bed heads.
Nassir said it was essential to refurbish the emergency department to ensure there is easy access to the area for those patients needing emergency care.
“Initially, both adults and children used to receive care in one department, but we made sure that we separated the two as children used to see accident patients getting into the hospital in the general entrance to the facility. This unit has a separate door only for emergency patients,” he said.
He urged Mombasa residents to enrol with the Social Health Authority (SHA), noting that the money remitted by SHA was about Sh200 million, and if it wasn’t for the cover, it would be coming from people’s pockets.
He said the county would ensure the programme works effectively in the hospital so that both the rich and the poor in the society get quality healthcare.
Nassir said the county government would also employ more healthcare providers at the emergency department so that they could increase the workforce.
“Now is the time for us to equip our hospitals with what is mostly required, which is the human resource. Machines need humans to be operational and we need professionals to work in this hospital,” he said.
He asked the hospital board to ensure healthcare workers delivered quality health care to patients with no discrimination to the poor, adding that people go to the hospital to get hope and comfort; thus, he won’t tolerate any case of negligence or indiscipline at work.
He said the county government continues with a programme launched to provide free medical care to children under five years old at all Mombasa County medical facilities.
The programme is funded by various revenue streams generated in the county, he added.
The Governor said that plans were underway to build a private wing at the hospital to ensure they get more revenue from the rich so that the money can be used to help those that cannot afford quality healthcare.
By Chari Suche
