Governor promises to fix referral hospital’s broken CT scanner
A patient being attended to at the CT scanner at Baringo County Referral Hospital in Kabarnet on February 14, 2019.
The CT scan equipment at Baringo County Referral Hospital in Kabarnet that broke down several months ago will be fixed within a month, Governor Benjamin Cheboi has said.
The Sh36 million equipment was acquired in 2016 under former Governor Stanley Kiptis. It was intended to reduce patient referrals to hospitals in neighbouring counties like Nakuru and Eldoret.
Other state of the art equipment purchased at the time included a digital X-ray, and ultrasound and mammogram machines. The hospital’s buildings had to be remodelled to fit the machines.
But the CT scanner broke down. The Nation established that it has not been operational since September last year, sparking uproar among residents, human rights activists and local leaders.
Patients incur more expenses travelling to hospitals in neighbouring counties to seek vital services.
Mr Kiptis had been asked several times by locals to explain why the CT scanner was not working.
He claimed the equipment was under repair, blaming delays on lengthy procurement procedures.
“It has taken us time to repair it, owing to the regular procurement procedures. However, we have made great strides in the health sector since I took over in 2018,” Mr Kiptis said previously.
Governor Cheboi, Baringo’s pioneer governor, who recaptured the seat after losing it in 2017, said the vital equipment will be repaired.
“We are committed to ensure the facility lives up to its standards of a Level Five hospital. We will all make sure that diagnostic tools, including the CT scan, which has not been operational for some time, are repaired,” he said.
“It should be working in the next one month,” he said, promising to ask the Ministry of Health to also provide an MRI machine previously purchased under the Managed Equipment Services (MES) leasing arrangement.
“We want to assure locals that all the needed equipment at the referral hospital will be [provided] to improve service delivery,” he said.
He also said the hospital will be decongested by ensuring all five sub-county hospitals offer the expected services so as to minimise patient traffic at the county referral hospital.
“Many patients coming to the referral facility are those with ailments that can be treated in a health centre or at our Level Four hospitals. We will ensure service delivery in those facilities is scaled up,” the governor said.
“I promise the locals that I will work with elected leaders and administrators to ensure that the county referral facility offers services at the level of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret.”
