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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