Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) is geared towards an expansion programme of its infrastructure in the three cities in the country.
KMTC Board Chairman Prof Philip Kaloki said they have an allocation from the national government amounting to Sh500 million to spearhead the expansion programme.
Kaloki said more lecturers will be recruited to help in tutoring the students who will be absorbed into the KMTC colleges.
“The county governments have been sending in some staff to KMTC but that is not enough, we are going to hire more lectures to be able to cope with the high number of students,” he said.
He said Kisumu, Mombasa, Nairobi and Eldoret have been identified for infrastructural improvement to accommodate some of the 17 programmes to be initiated in KMTC.
“We have new courses that will be spread in these KMTC colleges. We had put them on hold because of lack of space and now that we are set for expansion, they will be introduced,” he said.
Speaking on Friday in Kisumu during an environmental open day organised by the institution, Kaloki said the country is facing a shortage of more than 40,000 health workers.
He said the national government is aware that the health sector has been facing a myriad of challenges since it was devolved and among them, the deficiency of health workers.
Kaloki said that with the expansion programme, more health workers will be trained to bridge the big gap that currently exists.
“Almost 80 percent of health workers in the country are a product of KMTC, we will strive to produce more workforce for the county governments,” he said.