KNH closes doors for walk-in patients

Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) will close its doors to walk-in patients starting July as part of an initiative to decongest the facility, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director-General Mohamed Badi has said. The new development, he said, will allow the country’s biggest referral hospital to concentrate only on referral cases. The NMS boss said the move is part of a wider plan by the Ministry of Health to have referral hospitals across the country serve what they have been specifically established for. “In conjunction with the Ministry of Health, we have been able to produce a policy document on referral system in Kenya. Nairobi County will be used as a guinea pig as the first county to implement this strategy to ensure that KNH becomes a teaching and referral hospital only,” said Maj-Gen Badi. In readiness for the deadline, he said already NMS is racing against time to have the 24 new Level 2 and 3 hospitals to be fully operational before then. The construction of the Sh2 billion new hospitals, which began last year August, is aimed at increasing Nairobi’s bed capacity as well as alleviate the need to have every patient with even the smallest injury in the informal settlement rushing to KNH. Already four of the new hospitals have been commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta with six more to be launched in the coming week. “We are working hard to ensure all hospitals in informal settlements and disadvantaged areas are completed by June and are operational by the end of June because the deadline for closure of KNH to walk-in patients is the first week of July,” he said. He further added that Mama Lucy Hospital will also be expanded to a Level 5 facility while a new Level 5 hospital, Mathare-Korogocho Level 5 hospital, is soon being opened in Mathare to serve patients who often have to go to KNH. Moreover, Badi said Mbagathi Hospital has also been expanded as part of the KNH’s decongestion strategy. “Procurement and tendering process for Mama Lucy hospital’s expansion is already complete and soon the contract will be awarded to a contractor to build the extension. All these new developments will significantly reduce the number of patients rushing to KNH,” said the NMS boss.