Kitui County Governor Charity Ngilu has opened a new state of the art amenity ward at the County Referral Hospital in a bid to accelerate access to quality healthcare.
The launch is one of the continuous efforts by the County Government to improve healthcare and ensure citizens get quality health services in the county.
Speaking at the official opening ceremony at the Level 4 Hospital, Ngilu said the amenity center is fully operational and expressed confidence in the facility’s ability to offer services to the public and other corporate clients, saying the county has necessary facilities for quality services.
“We boast of having specialists that include pediatricians, general surgeons, orthopedic surgeon, physicians, gynecologist, an endocrinologist, maxillofacial surgeon, pathologist, family doctors and a visiting neurosurgeon,” she said.
The new development in the sector went along with the signing of an agreement between the County Government, Centre for Health Solutions and Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK).
The county’s engagement with the CHS has seen the county hire Clinical Officers, Nursing Officers, Laboratory Technologists, Pharmacy Technologist, Nutritionists, HTS Coordinators, Health Records and Information Officers and Data Clerks through a budgetary support to the County Department of Health which is currently Sh.136 million.
The Centre for Health Solutions has engaged 144 Healthcare Workers and 107 Peer Educators, Mentor Mothers, Lay Counsellors, and Adolescence Peer Educators.
The County’s partnership with the Christian Health Association of Kenya seeks to reverse the HIV trends in the county.
Through concerted efforts, 63 per cent of people with HIV have been identified and of this, 95 per cent are on life saving drugs.
The Governor decried the rise in the mother to child transmission rate which currently stand at 8.2 per cent and called on health workers to test all pregnant mothers at the antenatal clinics.
By Yobesh Onwong’a
Ngilu opens new amenity wing at Kitui County Referral Hospital
