The health sector in Western Kenya received a major boost after Aga Khan Hospital Kisumu unveiled a new 116 bed capacity facility.
This is an upgrade from the old 70 bed capacity hospital bringing on board a ray of new services and specialized clinics to cater for the health needs of the region.
The facility which opens its doors to patients on Monday next week has been fitted with state of the art equipment to offer cutting edge medical services.
Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu Medical Director Dr. Patrick Eshiwani said the new facility has three spacious operation theatres, a cath lab, a 6 bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a private wing.
Other departments and services to be housed at the new facility include general medicine, accident and emergency, radiology services, cardiology, oncology, neurology, neonatology, gynecology and pediatrics.
The theatres, he said, have been installed with modern equipment to facilitate specialized operations for heart and kidney diseases.
“We have a lot of renal failure happening and patients are going outside the country to get transplants. One of the theatres we have has lamina flow which will allow us to conduct kidney transplants here,” he said.
The facility, he added, has a cardiology department which will feed into the cath lab to assist patients requiring heart operations.
Part of the machines for the cath lab, he said have already been installed adding that the additional equipment required to operationalize it will be installed early next year before the services are rolled out.
“We are moving from a secondary hospital to a tertiary hospital where we are going into sub-specialization,” he said.
The expansion and modernization of the facility, he said, was informed by the health needs of the great lakes region adding that new specialists have been recruited to offer the services.
The hospital, he added, has absorbed a physician endocrinologist who will take care of all the endocrine diseases with diabetes being among the leading in the region.
Other specialists absorbed include physician nephrologist, infectious disease specialist and a neurologist.
The facility, he added, will house the first sleep laboratory in the country to manage patients with sleep disorders.
Patients with prolonged sleep disorders and convulsive disorders will be studied and examined at the laboratory.
“A patient can convulse without showing any signs and symptoms so we will be able to monitor such patients and come up with a proper diagnosis,” he said.
The new hospital, he added also has a fully-fledged molecular laboratory molecular, CT Scan machines, Ultrasound and MRI machine.
The expansion, he disclosed, was part of the Sh. 2.8 billion funding from Aga Khan Health Services to upgrade Kisumu and Mombasa facilities.
“The building where we have been operating is an old structure. It is a 70 bed capacity and it required that we strengthen it. One of the ways was to come up with this building,” he said.
The old facility, he said, will not be demolished but will be converted into an office block for the staff.
By Chris Mahandara
