State to take over management of Gatundu Level Five Hospital

The main entrance to Gatundu Level Five Hospital in Kiambu County. [Courtesy]

The government has announced plans to take over and upgrade Gatundu Level Five Hospital to a referral facility to enhance health services.

Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha said the ministry will collaborate with the Kiambu county government to fast-track the transition.

The upgrade will see the facility join the league of top health facilities in the country, including Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Mwai Kibaki Hospital-KNH in Othaya and Kenyatta University Teaching Research and Referral Hospital (KUTRRH).

Nakhumicha said Gatundu Level Five Hospital has since 2015, had a collaborative agreement with KUTRRH, through a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Health and the Kiambu county government.

She said that the facility will now be run by the national government.

Nakhumicha announced that public participation will be done for people of Gatundu to agree to the transfer.

KUTRRH has been collaborating with Gatundu Level Five Hospital in the delivery of quality health care services.

The CS noted that the areas of collaboration have been the provision of health care service and referral, infrastructural development and modernisation of equipment, sharing of human resources for health and development of health products and technology.

Nakhumicha spoke at the hospital on Wednesday during the official launch of the Partnership for Education of Health Professionals (PEP), a joint initiative between the national government and Danish Novo Nordisk Foundation.

The initiative is aimed at enhancing training and research in the fight against CardioMetabolic Diseases (CMDs).

Nakhumicha was accompanied by Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria, Health Principal Secretary Mary Muriuki, Danish Ambassador Stephan Schonemann.

Gatundu South MP Gabriel Kagombe and Novo Nordisk Foundation head Lars Rabien were also present.

The CS noted that the hospital will be registered as a national government facility.

Kuria said the takeover was long overdue and would restore sanity and streamline services at the facility.

He regretted that the standoff over the hospital management pitting Governor Kimani Wamatangi's administration and the national government has cost the hospital Sh500 million in grants, which would have been spent to improve service delivery.

"Chinese helped us with (construct) one wing, and the next one is under construction, but painfully, in this financial year, we lost Sh500 million due to those wrangles. I am working with CS Nakhumicha, PS Harry Kimutai and area MP to restore that money," Kuria said.

Kuria revealed that the vision that former President Uhuru Kenyatta had while upgrading the hospital's infrastructure was to make it a referral hospital offering specialized healthcare to Kenyans and the region.

Kagombe said that the hospital has a 12-bed ICU unit, which has not been operational for years, a CT scan, X-ray equipment, Renal Unit among other crucial medical equipment that are lying idle due to the management tussle.

"I know there is something we should be doing on getting the hospital as was foreseen in executive order 2 of 2023, I know we have a lot of issues to align there but we must align them because we cannot have a KMTC here while its anchor institution is in disarray. I am ready to work with you and the county government to ensure the two institutions are working properly," he said.

The lawmaker pleaded with Governor Wamatangi to facilitate smooth transition of the hospital management to ensure service delivery to the public.