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Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) will stop accepting walk-in patients starting July this year.
Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director-General Mohamed Badi says the move is part of the government’s efforts to decongest KNH, which is the largest referral health hospital in the country. This will allow the hospital to concentrate on referral cases only, Badi said.
Badi noted that the same policy will be implemented in other referral hospitals across the country to allow them serve what they have been specifically established for.
“In conjunction with the Ministry of Health, we have been able to produce a policy document on referral system in Kenya. Nairobi County will be used as a guinea pig as the first county to implement this strategy to ensure that KNH becomes a teaching and referral hospital only,” Badi said on Wednesday.
NMS looks to have 24 new Level 2 and 3 hospitals fully operational in Nairobi ahead of the July deadline.
The construction of the facilities is being done at a cost of Sh2 billion across all the sub-counties in Nairobi.
When complete, they will increase the city’s bed capacity and reduce the need for patients to rush to KNH for minor treatments.
President Kenyatta has already commissioned four of the hospitals, with six more expected to be opened in the coming week.
“We are working hard to ensure that all the hospitals in informal settlements and disadvantaged areas are completed by the first of June and are operational by the end of June because the deadline for closure of KNH to walk-in patients is the first week of July,” added Mbadi.
In addition, Mama Lucy Hospital will be upgraded to a Level 5 facility while Mbagathi Hospital will be revamped as part of the plan to decongest KNH.
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