In the picture: Dr.Rashid Amani, Prof.Olive Mugenda , Sicily Kariuki, and Susan Mochache
Nairobi (KENYA), April 8, 2019 – The Cabinet Health (CS) for Health Sicily Kariuki has officially inaugurated the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital Board to be chaired by former Vice chancellor Professor Olive Mugenda.
The CS also appointed a new acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Andrew Toro to manage the facility which, will be one of the centres of excellence for cancer management in the country. The facility will run independently as a Parastatal with the board taking full control and full audit without interference and secondment of staff with concurrence from the Ministry of Health. The CS urged the Board to urgently operationalize the facility which, was established by His Excellency the President as a State Corporation under the State Corporations Act Cap 446 through a Legal Notice No.4 of 2019 dated 25th January 2019. She said the ultra- modern 600-bed state-of-the-art Hospital with 28 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds and a neonatal intensive care unit will provide quality cancer management services in the country to reverse the current trends in medical tourism by Kenyans seeking health services abroad and will save the country approximately Kshs. 10 Billion lost revenue annually through overseas medical treatment.
Currently, there are five level six health facilities in the country namely, Kenyatta National Hospital, Mathari National Teaching and Referral hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral hospital, National Spinal injury hospital, Othaya National Referral Hospital, serving a population of 48 million Kenyans.
“This is below the aspirations of the Ministry of Health to have at least 10 national referral facilities across the country as envisioned in the Medium Term Plan III,” the CS said. The CS also directed the relevant technical officers in the Ministry of Health to immediately embark on development of a guideline on overseas medical treatment within a period of 90 days. She said the facility will provide a platform for training mid-level health care workers, general medical doctors and specialist doctors to address the current deficit at a ratio of 15: 10,000 against a WHO prescribed ratio of 23: 10,000.