Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has opened a new state of the art amenity ward at the County Referral Hospital today. The launch is one of the continuous efforts by the County Government to improve healthcare and ensure citizens get quality health services in the county.

Speaking at the opening ceremony at the Level 4 Hospital, Ngilu said the amenity center is fully operational and expressed confidence in the facility’s ability to offer services to the public and other corporate clients, saying the county has necessary facilities for quality services.

“We boast of having specialists that include pediatricians, general surgeons, an orthopedic surgeon, physicians, gynecologist, an endocrinologist, maxillofacial surgeon, pathologist family doctors and a visiting neurosurgeon”. She said.

The new development in the sector went along with the signing of an agreement between the County Government, The Centre for Health Solutions and the Christian Health Association of Kenya {CHAK}.

The county’s engagement with the CHS has seen the county hire Clinical Officers, Nursing Officers, Laboratory Technologists, Pharmacy Technologist, Nutritionists, HTS Coordinators, Health Records and Information Officers and Data Clerks through a budgetary support to the County Department of Health which is currently sh.136M.

The Centre for Health Solutions has engaged 144 Healthcare Workers and 107 Peer Educators, Mentor Mothers, Lay Counsellors, and Adolescence Peer Educators and have increased the number by an additional 43 Healthcare Workers.

The County’s partnership with the Christian Health Association of Kenya seeks to reverse the HIV trends in the county. Through concerted efforts, 63% of people with HIV have been identified and of this, 95% are on life saving drugs.

The Governor decried the rise in the mother to child transmission rate which currently stands at 8.2% and called upon health workers to test all pregnant mothers at the antenatal clinics.