Almost two months after Murang’a County Governor and CRP party leader Mwangi Wairia made history by completing the largest Intensive Care Unit in a record 21 days, the governor on Thursday officiated ground breaking of yet another ultra modern state of the art Murang’a Cancer Teaching and Referral Hospital.
The seven storey 400 bed cancer centre is expected to be ready by December this year.
Speaking in Murang’a, the governor said the facility would be among the few cancer centres that offer in-patient cancer services.
“Right now, most health facilities offer outpatient cancer services, which are very expensive and inaccessible to patients from poor families. The facility will also have all the equipment required to treat all types of cancers” he said.
“If it is the last of projects i will undertake then so be it, we must solve the mess that is cancer in this country by having facilities that help the patients get treatment when they need them,” Wairia added.
Wairia said the cancer centre will save many lives since it will only cater for cancer patients and will have specialized medical personnel who are well trained are trained in clinical oncology, which covers radiotherapy, chemotherapy and haematology.
“The cancer hospital will helard a new awakening in the region and raise the standard of clinical services in surgery, systemic/chemotherapy, radiation therapy, nursing oncology, bone marrow transplantation, and psycho-oncology” Wairia added.
“The center will ensure that residents no longer have to travel to India and other foreign countries for cancer treatment, he said.
“We want to upgrade our health facilities to ensure no one will go to another county or coountry to seek any form of treeatment.. From now on, it is patients from other counties who will be coming to us,” he said.
The installation is the only one in the Eastern and Central Africa with teaching and referral facilities in place for knowledge management and transfer.
Wairia who is also the Deputy Chairperson council of governors in the republic of Kenya said his revolutionary move is in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) 2006 recommendations that all countries, states and regional governments should have have a cancer control plan to meet the needs of the population for the components of cancer control: prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, palliative and hospice care.
The project is being constructed by county engineers and local labour to reduce the costs.
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