Referral hospital set to build Sh800m surgical complex

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and referral hospital is set construct a surgical complex ward with 300 bed capacity, projected at Sh800 Million.

This comes after the hospital management confirmed that the faculty has fully equipped six surgical wards with only two operational due to limited human resource.

The project which is at its designing stage incorporated in the facility’s surgical plan is scheduled to be complete in the next five years, and will be funded by the county government and other external and international institutions .

The hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Peter Okoth said the two surgical wards have been dedicated for women and children as another for men.

“Emergencies stream from all over western Kenya, yet in each ward we have only two nurses attending to the patients instead of the recommended six,” he stated.

He said in a week, the surgical wards attend to more than 20 cases and for the process to be sufficient the facility need enough number of nurses.

Okoth explained that due to congestion in the two wards the facility is increasing output in the theater, adding that patients are operated very fast, given drugs, heal in a short time and discharged to increase the turnover.

“Usually surgeries have been interrupted by emergencies from maternity, suspending some surgeries that should go on,” he said.

Okoth further said the suspension of some surgeries has helped avoid maternal deaths and with the new planned surgical complex it will help avoid frequent surgery interruptions.

As a way of addressing the matter the management said they are on verge to increase nurses to at least 20 to help ease the pressure and reduced loads of surgery cases.

“We have a serious shortage of nurses, currently we are having two nurses against seven patients in the facility,” he said.

He said this has subjected patients to stay for long at the surgical ward awaiting for different surgery procedures.

“If the six theaters can be operational as we wait for the completion of complex ward then we will save more lives during emergencies and more time,” said Okoth.

He said there are enough doctors on board but the limit has been on the number of nurses, for all the six to operate efficiently we need enough numbers of medical personnel.

The complex ward will see different surgical operations separated compared to now all surgeries happen in the two words.

“We will have neurosurgery at its own section, maternal cases among other surgical procedures separated compared to the current situation,” said Okoth.