As the world celebrates world nurses’ week, Homa Bay county government has been challenged to employ more nurses to offer 100 percent healthcare services to the public.
The Director of Nurses Daniel Okuku Odhiambo said that Homa Bay required about 2300 nurses to ensure quality service delivery as opposed to the current 800 who could only offer 86 percent healthcare services.
“The referral hospital requires at least 2300 nurses for it to give 100 percent health care services to the public,” he stated.
Speaking Thursday at the County Referral Hospital within Homa Bay town during the celebrations of nurses’ week, Okuku explained that as frontline workers of the health care sector, the few nurses in the hospital have dedicated their time to ensure quality health care services to all patients.
Maternal new born and child vaccination being the main theme of the event, Okuku proudly stated that the hospital has managed to reduce maternal deaths from 514 in 2019 to 480.
Child immunization has increased as compared to the previous years while mother to child HIV transmission has tremendously reduced as a result of the many interventions undertaken in the county.
“Full child immunization has also increased to about 76 percent as compared to the previous years. The hospital has also reduced mother to child HIV transmission to less than one percent,” said the Director.
He urged expectant mothers to seek medical services during pregnancy and delivery to receive proper maternal health care and child immunization.
Ali Oketch, supervisor Medicines Sans Frontier (MSF) said his organisation was also marking 25 years of service in the county.
“MSF has helped to improve the healthcare system in the county by supporting patients as well as employing public health workers like nurses to fill in the gaps at the hospital,” Oketch said.
The County Referral Hospital is in partnership with MSF and KEMRI to improve healthcare services in the county.
In the event, the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) was acknowledged as part of the team that has ensured quality healthcare services in the county.
The nurses are set to join their colleagues Friday in Kericho to mark the end of the Nurses Week celebrations.
