Kidney patients in Kericho County can now afford a smile after the county administration equipped the Kericho County Referral Hospital with state-of- the art renal unit.
This will bring closer to home dialysis services and subsequent reduction of cost in management of kidney diseases.
Speaking when he commissioned the Sh95 million state-of- the art renal unit at the hospital, governor Paul Chepkwony said the five- bed unit has a capacity to serve 20 kidney patients per day at the cost of Sh6, 000 per session per patient.
“I know this is a sigh of relief for the kidney patients in the county who had suffered a lot in terms of cost because they have been traveling long distance for the treatment. I want to assure the public the county has eight specialists and therefore there was no fears in the area that the medical equipment would lie idle,” said Chepkwony (pictured).
The renal unit is as a result of the Managed Equipment Scheme (MES) between the national and the county governments.
“We have also since received 20 dialysis machines from the World Medical Relief in Michigan State in United States of America. The medial equipment are in the process of being installed in various health facilities in the county,” the governor added.
Chepkwony, who was accompanied by health department executive Hellen Ng’eno, county medical services director Dr Betty Langat among others, added that the county had procured medical drugs and non-pharmaceutical supplies worth Sh60 million.
He added that the county’s radiology center was one of the best in the region as attested by President Uhuru Kenyatta during his visit to the facility late last year in the company of Deputy President William Ruto.
“Patients in Kericho County don’t have to travel anywhere else in the country or overseas for medical diagnosis. Besides the radiology centre, we have the best Computed Tomography (CT) scan, 26 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds among other crucial medical equipment” said Chepkwony.