MCAs question county capacity to run Mama Uhuru facility

Questions have been raised over the capacity of Nairobi City County to effectively run the Mama Margaret Uhuru Hospital.

This follows a move to transfer its management from the Kenyatta National Hospital to the county government.

The Level 5 facility which is located between Kariobangi North and Korogocho neighborhoods was completed by the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and has been under the management of the KNH ever since.

Kariobangi North MCA Joel Munuve now wants the county government to state the measures it has put in place to manage the facility once it is transferred from KNH.

He also wants to know whether there was a public participation exercise before the decision to have the facility managed by the county government.

According to Munuve, Nairobians especially those who live near the facility needed to give their input on whether the transfer was necessary.

Request for transfer

“The county does not have the capacity to manage the hospital. What were the reasons behind the request for transfer?” Munuve questioned.

“If you look at hospitals run by the county government, you will realise that the county government cannot be able to run that facility at all,” Munuve added. He stated that KNH was willing to continue running the facility which is currently closed after the transfer request from the county government.

According to the MCA, no cases of negligence have ever been reported at the facility since it was opened.

Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja is on record stating that they were in the final stages of reverting the facility back to the county government and make it a general hospital.

According to the governor, the facility will serve more people if converted to a general hospital and not a pediatric only.

Huge population

“We are in the final stages of having Mama Margaret Uhuru Hospital back to Nairobi County from Kenyatta National Hospital and making it a level 5, 400 bed capacity hospital to serve the huge population in the slum areas,” Sakaja stated.

The facility which was previously known as Mathare-Korogocho Level 5 Hospital has a bed capacity of 350 and offers specialised healthcare services for free or at subsidised rates.

The hospital has in-patient wards, a 24-hour pharmacy, a kidney dialysis centre, an intensive care unit, a burns unit and theatres.

It also offers renal dialysis, radiology services, tuberculosis management, mortuary and autopsy services, pathology, chemotherapy, and forensic services.