Plans to decongest referral hospital

A community health worker measures a patient’s blood pressure. Moi University Teaching and Referral Hospital is training health workers to offer specialised services at dispensaries to help decongest the hospital. PHOTO| FILE |NATION

Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital is training community health workers, clinicians and technicians to provide specialised services at the primary level, as part of efforts to decongest the referral hospital, so that it can concentrate on its mandate of handling highly specialised cases.

Already, Bomet, Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet, Turkana and Bungoma counties have benefited from the training.

A Sh250 million grant from the World Bank has enabled the hospital to train health workers in Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.

Community health workers have been trained to sensitise people on the prevention of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease.

Kidney disease particularly problematic, having taken up the lion’s share of NHIF pay-outs. Kenya has only 29 nephrologists (kidney specialists) to serve 44 million Kenyans. Four million Kenyans have kidney disease, with up to 30 patients undergoing dialysis at MTRH every day. The high number of patients has stretched facilities.

“We are working with county governments to offer technical and human resource support so that patients can access quality medical services at the grassroots,” said CEO Wilson Aruasa, noting that the 900-bed hospital receives 1,500 inpatients and about 700 outpatients, straining its services. The hospital also gets patients from eastern Uganda and Southern Sudan.

“Post-graduate medical trainees are involved in the programme. They are posted to emergency units and other departments in various health facilities to offer in- and out-patient services,” added Dr Aruasa.