Kajiado County Governor Joseph Ole Lenku has launched the ground breaking construction of Saina Outpatient Dispensary at Dallalekutuk ward that aims to benefit at least 15,000 patients.
Governor Lenku revealed that Kajiado County Referral hospital has been praised for offering good medical services, making the hospital congested and doctors overwhelmed by the high number of patients therefore Saina dispensary would ease the congestion by treating patients with minor illnesses.
‘We have experienced challenges in Kajiado referral hospital because Kajiado residents lack a dispensary where they can receive outpatient treatment. In order to solve the congestion at referral hospital, we have started the construction of a small dispensary that we are launching today and I believe in less than four months the dispensary will be operational,’ revealed Governor Lenku adding that the dispensary will offer three main services.
‘In this dispensary, we will have a theatre section, a maternity wing for women to deliver
safely and an outpatient section. The services in this hospital will be free because it will be a community dispensary,’ added Governor Lenku.
Governor Lenku and some of the County Assembly members during the ground-breaking of the construction of Saina dispensary. Photos by Sammy Rayiani.
Kajiado County Executive Committee Member for Health Alex Kilowua said that they expected the dispensary to be ready in a span of 4 to 6 months and thanked the governor for opening a male ward at the referral hospital.
‘Today we had the opportunity for the governor to launch a male ward of over 100 bed capacity. It is going to decongest the patients that we now have at the hospital. We have given a timeline of 4 to 6 months for the Saina dispensary. It will serve us in a good way to decongest the referral hospital, especially the outpatient service,’ said Mr Kilowua.
Joseph Munywa, a village elder in Saina applauded the county government for the good work noting that they have solved a major problem in the area such as
unemployment to the youth and treatment to the resident.
‘People have been walking for 5 kilometres to get treatment at the referral hospital even at night. But now people are happy because of the ongoing construction. I would request the county government to ensure this project is sustainable and involves the residents. They should employ youths as contractors so that they can be allowed to easily access the services,’ noted Munywa.
Some of the residents in the area expressed their joy and narrated the challenges they had to endure to get treatment saying they believed that the dispensary would be effective.
‘We have had a lot of challenges. When someone is sick, they have to use fare in order to go and get treatment but now, the residents are going to benefit a lot from this dispensary,’ said Victor Wambua.
‘Today my mother was sick and I had to take her to a chemist where she was given medicine by someone who is not a doctor. Constructing a dispensary here will stop such cases because we will be able t
o get treatment from qualified doctors so I am grateful to the county government for this,’ added one Beatrice Wambua.
Source: Kenya News Agency