[Kisii Governor James Ongwae in a past event. He has overseen ISO certification of KTRH medical Lab. Photo/Hivisasa.com]
Kisii County Governor James Ongwae yesterday announced that construction of the facility’s proposed 2 billion shilling cancer treatment centre at the hospital will commence soon.
Governor Ongwae said had received written confirmation from the Ministry of Health that funds for the project had become available.
“We have received a letter from the ministry that a Sh 2 b grant from donors to build a modern cancer centre and cancer ward with a 60 bed capacity is available. We expect it to be complete within the next two years as soon as the funds are disbursed to my administration,” he said.
The donors funding the project are the the Arab Development Bank and the government of Saudi Arabia.
"We were given a single condition by our donors for the release of the funds which was an implementation schedule and we have already done it," said the governor.
He was speaking yesterday during the International Standards Organisation (ISO) certification ceremony for the Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital (KTRH) medical laboratory.
Governor Ongwae hailed the occasion as an important milestone for the facility, calling it ‘an indicator that the facility had come of age in globally recognized diagnostic standards and practice’.
“The premier referral of our facility means the laboratory meets international standards for quality and competence in medical laboratories. Indeed, medical laboratory testing plays a crucial role in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of disease in patients and attaining this certification is a major boost towards actualizing our vision to provide world class healthcare services for our people,” said the governor.
With the certification, the facility’s medical laboratory is now listed among internationally accredited labs on the Kenya National Accreditation Service (KENAS) website, becoming only the third State-run hospital to attain the ISO 151:89:2012 status.
Speaking at the event, laboratory services chief Mr Stanley Otara hailed the achievement, saying the results from the facility lab can be trusted worldwide.
“Our certification means results obtained at this laboratory can now be replicated anywhere in the world allowing it to support training and research. Residents can now enjoy efficient laboratory services due to increased confidence in test results,” Mr Otara said.
In the accreditation and certification process, the KTRH also worked with the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) which provided support and mentorship to the facility's management and county health officials.
He told the Nation the County Government has recruited additional health workers. We have boosted the lab workforce by employing additional staff.
“The laboratory which is manned by one pathologist and 27 health workers operates 24 hours from Monday to Sundayand on public holidays, providing emergency services to all the hospital’s clinical departments,” said the governor.
He said the hospital had embarked on an ambitious infrastructural expansion programme that will see it become a modern medical complex.
“KTRH is also improving infrastructure at the hospital, including the construction of a 150 bed capacity ward, a 50 unit hostel block for intern doctors, a 100 body capacity mortuary complete with a funeral home, a car park, a pharmacy store and the county’s health ministry headquarters,” said the governor.
This is the only laboratory in a public institution within the western region that has received this accreditation.
Governor Ongwae said the county had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kisii University on the establishment of a medical school. Under the arrangement, the university will use KTRH facilities for training and research.
According to the governor, construction of the County Molecular Referral Laboratory for specialized tests at the facility is nearly complete.
“The completion of the project done in collaboration with Kisii University will also offer see the facility offer specialized services to residents in addition to specialist teaching at the medical school,” he said.
He said the county government has invested substantial resources in improving curative and preventive healthcare services for residents.
County Director of Medical Services Dr Geoffrey Otomu said referrals of patients in need of kidney dialysis have significantly reduced following the establishment of a 10 bed renal unit.
“We have also installed a 6 bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a three bed High Dependency Unit (HDU) to enhance capacity of KTRH to offer services to residents. Now residents access state of the art diagnostic services like ICU, HDU, Computerized Tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), digital x-ray and mammography,” said Dr Otomu.