Kiambu County On Its Way Towards Becoming A Regional Health Hub.

Some dialysis machines in a file picture in one of the health facilities.

Kiambu County Government has laid down a strategic masterplan to transform the county into a regional health hub, opening the floodgates for healthcare tourism where people from other counties in the country as well as from the East African region will be visiting to receive medical treatment.

This was revealed by the Kiambu Health Chief Officer (C.O.) Dr. Stephen Njuguna Waiguru during the 75^th Cerebrations of Thika Level 5 Hospital. He said that it was their vision as the health department to see people come Kiambu from the rest of the country and in Africa to receive superior medical care as well as receiving less expensive but quality medical care.

“As a department, we want to brand Kiambu as a medical tourism destination of choice by providing high standard of health care. To achieve this, we plan to build on some key selling points such as quality medical treatment at low cost and accessibility, qualified and dedicated health personnel as well a wide range of medical services,” said the C.O.

Njuguna reckoned that the number of patients visiting Kiambu County was immense due to the services provided in the county something that at times overwhelmed their facilities and staff. But according to him, this was an opportunity worth taking advantage.

“The other day someone posted Tigoni Hospital on Facebook saying that patients were sharing beds. I would want to encourage our health care workers not to get disappointed about the situation but rather see it as an opportunity. That is why a 150 bed ward is coming up in Tigoni. That is why we are having a 600 bed reproductive health unit coming up in Thika Level 5 Hospital and we actually would want it full so that we can have another one and another come up. That is how we shall make Kiambu County the hub of medicine in the region,” he said.

The C.O. said that Kiambu aimed at putting up amenity facilities in various hospitals within the county to provide patients with integrated health services, particularly those looking for alternative or supplemental options.  

“Hospitals such as Kikuyu, Kijabe and Nazareth were now pursuing specialised training in nursing. Kijabe for instance was specializing in training anaesthesia. I also feel that Thika Level 5 Hospital should follow suit.”

Kiambu Health CEC Dr. Jonah Mwangari Mwangi reaffirmed the county’s commitment in building on these developments adding that they were also working on improving on their human resource capacity.

“We are training two doctors in Kings College, London who, upon return, will start a comprehensive kidney care services. With this we will be in a position to diagnose, do dialysis and even be able to do renal transplants here in Kiambu. We have also started programmes on cancer care, cardiac and orthopedic care and we have designated Gatundu Level 4 Hospital as a centre for non-communicable diseases,” said Mwangi.

The department has also gazetted a County Quality Assurance Board whose mandate will be to visit all the health facilities looking at the issues that affect the quality of health services within the county.

The health department has accompanied Governor William Kabogo to Johannesburg, South Africa where they visited model dialysis centres in Fresenius Medical care in a bid to explore a deal to equip the upcoming renal health facility in Ruiru though, according to them, their biggest focus will be improving the primary health care.