Embu to set up oxygen plant at level five hospital
BY JOEY KIMEU
The County Assembly has approved the allocation of Sh88
million for the establishment of an ultramodern oxygen plant at the Embu Level
Five Hospital.
According to Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman
Harrison Mwaluko, the plant will be the largest in Kenya and will be able to
supply oxygen to all public hospitals in the county and also sell the surplus
to private hospitals across the country.
“The plant has the capacity of working 24 hours a day, seven
days a week to produce oxygen gas in large-scale volumes,” he said.
The Mwea MCA expressed confidence that the problem of
shortage of oxygen which has bedevilled the county for the last two years will
be addressed with finality.
He said the county would also experience a boost in local
revenue generation resulting from sale of oxygen.
He spoke during a County Assembly plenary sitting to
consider the second Supplementary Budget for the 2018/2019 Financial Year.
Mwaluko added that an additional Sh7 million had been
factored for housing of the oxygen plant.
He also said funds would also be availed for purchase
of a massive 500 kVA standby generator to ensure the plant would not experience
power outages.
Deputy Speaker Steve Simba said it was important for the
county to rethink about the health sector, pointing out that having a regional
referral hospital performing critical surgeries and nursing hundreds of
premature babies without oxygen was a matter of grave concern.
Simba called upon Governor Martin Wambora to consider hiring
more medical personnel, saying that the county’s hospitals were grossly
understaffed.
Evurore MCA Duncan Mbui welcomed the move to set up the
oxygen plant saying it would help decongest the Level Five hospital by ensuring
that Level Four hospitals could admit patients and perform minor surgeries with
sufficient oxygen supply.
Ends…/
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