Senator wants level 4 hospital in Jomvu to handle emergencies

Mombasa Senator Mohamed Faki [2^nd L] in Vikobani, Jomvu subcounty on Sunday / BRIAN OTIENO

Mombasa senator Mohamed Faki donates bloods during a free medical camp in Vikobani, Jomvu on Sunday / BRIAN OTIENO

An A Level 4 hospital, that can handle emergency cases, should be built in Jomvu subcounty, Mombasa Senator Mohamed Faki has said.

The hospital, Faki said, should be similar to or better than the one in Port Reitz in Changamwe subcounty.

Faki said Jomvu subcounty has only four public health facilities all of which are Level 3 and below, despite having a huge population, which overwhelms the facilities.

“We have enough land to accommodate a Level 4 hospital in Jomvu. We need a health facility that can handle emergencies like the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital,” the senator said.

He spoke on Sunday during a free medical camp organised by his office in collaboration with the Jomvu Youth Network in Vikobani in Jomvu constituency.

People from Mikindani and Miritini can easily access Jomvu.

The senator said the existing four health facilities in the subcounty should also be expanded because of the services they provide.

“The CDF hospital is located in a big catchment area but the facility is so much congested because of the little space it occupies,” Faki said.

“This makes it not give services as adequately as it should. In January, I visited the facility and the maternity bed has rust, which is dangerous to the mother and the child.”

Faki said health services in Jomvu need improvement because the subcounty is the last one in Mombasa after which one moves to Kilifi and Kwale counties, and is also the first one when one comes in from Kilifi and Kwale counties through the West part of Mombasa.

“We must have a facility here that can handle emergency such as accidents,” he said.

The senator said road accidents along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway occur but victims have to go all the way to the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital in Mvita constituency, bypassing Jomvu and Changamwe subcounties.

Having a facility closer to can help save lives, the senator said.

“You can remember some time back a plane crashed at Mataa ya Ndege. Two people died, including the pilot. But if the plane was bigger, carrying more people, it would have been a bigger disaster because there is no facility in Jomvu that can handle such emergencies,” Faki said.

He said already, he has started talks with health officials to find the way forward.

“There are many challenges. For instance, there is no public ambulance in the whole of Jomvu subcounty. If any emergency occurs, we have to go to a private facility and ask for an ambulance,” he said.

He said Jomvu needs a minimum of two ambulances.

One of them, he said, should be stationed in Mikindani ward, which is the most populous among the three wards in Jomvu constituency.

He said a decent ambulance costs about Sh7 million, which should not be too expensive for a county government.

“That Sh7 million is a day’s collection in Mombasa county,” Faki said.

The senator also called for motivation of health staff to improve healthcare.

“There are health personnel who have stayed for 10 years without any promotion. If you stay for 10 years without a single promotion, you start losing morale in the job and the quality of the services you offer also suffer,” the senator said.

Faki said more staff and drugs are needed in the four health facilities in Jomvu.

He said the Senate has passed a Facility Improvement Fund Bill, which sets up a fund in which the funds got from a facility are used to improve the same facility.