Ministry of Health takes over Gilgil hospital

Patients at the Gilgil mental hospital whose management will be taken over by the Ministry of Health. [Antony Gitonga/Standard]

The Cabinet has approved plans to take over the Gilgil Mental Hospital from the county government.

The move follows a request by the county government, through the Ministry of Health, to surrender the facility due to financial constraints.

Governor Lee Kinyanjui said the facility that serves hundreds of patients had strained the county's budget.

He said the hospital was second to Nairobi's Mathari Hospital. He praised medics at the facility for taking care of the patients, some of whom had been abandoned by their kin.