Story By Dickens Wasonga.
KENYA’S Ministry of Medical Services and the Walter Reed Project has entered into a pact that will see the two support construction of a comprehensive care center and an Out-Patient Department Clinic at the Kombewa District Hospital in Kisumu West at a cost of shs. 68 million.
The multimillion project to be built right in a remote set up with few health facilities to support the huge demand for health care provision amongst the rural folks will commence immediately after the signing of the contract between the Kenya government and the other development partners this Thursday.
Walter Reed Project Kombewa office which has been coordinating various research activities in the region for along time said the project is expected to be complete by December this year and the government of Kenya through the Ministry of Medical Services will inject shs.10 million of the total funding.
Upon completion the facility will be able to serve between 300 to 500 patients per day.
“The project will be contributing to improved health care service delivery in Kisumu West District and will also integrate HIV care services to the general outpatient services thus helping in reducing HIV/AIDS associated stigma,” reads a press statement released by Walter reed project.
It is also expected that the new facility will boost the physical infrastructure at the district hospital which has been used before in various clinical trials amongst them the ongoing third phase of the RTS’S , malaria vaccine trials.
The state of the art facility will be a two (2)-floor plan of approximately 1000 total square meter in size.
Amenities will include: Clinician/Doctor rooms,1 Minor theater, Ante-natal clinics, Family planning clinic ,Post natal clinics as well as Maternal and Child Health/Child Welfare.
Walter Reed Project is a special foreign activity of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Washington, DC formally known as US Army Medical Research Unit- Kenya.
It was activated in Kenya in 1969 at the invitation of the Government of Kenya.
It is affiliated through a Cooperative Agreement with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).
Over the past 40 years, it has conducted research on malaria trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, diarrhea, entomology, HIV/AIDS and arboviruses.
ENDS.