Services at Kirwara level 4 hospital in Gatanga sub county, Murang’a, are set to improve after the facility got new wards, offices and theatres.
A four storey hospital building that hosts new general and casualty wards, administration offices among other facilities was launched on Sunday thus increasing the hospital’s potential to serve many residents from the sub county and neighbouring environs.
With the new building, bed capacity at general wards was increased from 18 to 100 beds and maternity capacity from 11 to 30 beds.
The expansion of the hospital will see men also be admitted for treatment as in the past the facility could only admit women and children.
Launching the hospital building, Governor Irungu Kang’ata hailed completion of the project saying construction of the building which was started by the former county regime had stalled for some years.
He said his administration prioritised the completion of the building in order to boost service delivery and relieve locals who were forced to seek medical care from health facilities in the neighbouring Kiambu County.
“Apart from wards, the hospital will have both female and male surgical wards; and pediatric wards and also have offices for medical/doctors’ offices, nurse stations and consultation rooms. From now henceforth, locals will access specialised treatment from this facility,” added Kang’ata
The governor further noted the county government will add a number of nurses among other health practitioners at the facility so as to enable efficient delivery of services.
Kang’ata explained that operations in the hospital will be digitized so as to increase efficiency in the service delivery.
“The digitization of operations in our hospitals has for far boosted efficiency since we can monitor supplies and disbursement of drugs from some health facilities and here in Kirwara we will also computerize operations. Computers have been installed and patients will not be required to carry cards when they visit the facility since their records will be captured and kept digitally,” he explained.
Meanwhile the governor said his government is working to complete other health facilities which had stalled.
“We are about to complete Nyakianga level 4 hospital in Mathioya sub county as we have completed some health centres which were started by CDF some years back. Number of dispensaries have been completed and residents are getting services from the facilities,” he added.
A week ago, the county government launched new wards at Maragua and Bildad Kagia hospitals.
Gatanga MCA John Ngugi lauded the expansion of the hospital saying it can now handle various medical cases saying people from the area have suffered as they sought medical care from hospitals in Thika and Murang’a town.
“The hospital initially was mainly handling maternal health care and few general health cases but with the new building, the facility can be equipped to handle specialised health treatment,” he noted.
By Bernard Munyao
