Governor inaugurates new hospital board

H.E Governor Alex Tolgos has inaugurated new Board members of Iten County Referral Hospital.

The board members include former Moi Teaching and Referral hospital Chief executive Dr. John Kibosia, an Accountant Reuben Chesire, University Lecturers Dr. Risper Berem, Dr. Sally Kimosop and Sing’ore Girls’ Principal Rose Koech.

Others are Jeremiah Laktabai, Elias Komen and Mr. Benjamin Kimaile who is also the hospital medical superintendent.

The appointment of the Eight board members is for a term of three years period and they will be expected to steer the facility to greater heights in terms of infrastructure and management.

“These are great people and I have no doubt that they will deliver in supporting the management of the facility” said Governor Tolgos at the hospital boardroom Friday afternoon.

He appreciated the new members for accepting to be part of the hospital management considering that they were people engaged with other duties elsewhere.

Mr Chesire will be the chairperson of the board, said the Governor adding that his administration will appoint one more member to the board to replace Mr Stephen Biwott whose appointment was cancelled after he secured a national government appointment.

This will bring the total number of the hospital board members to Nine.

The Governor said:”Health is one of the devolved functions that has given county governments challenges but for our county, we gave it a priority,”

When the national government purchased medical equipment for Counties under the Health Managed Equipment Services, Tolgos was the first Governor to sign the deal.

The health equipment include radiography machines, a CT scan and renal unit which are already operational.

Addressing the meeting after receiving the appointment letter, Dr. Kibosia said:” It is an honor to serve in this board. Iten Referral Hospital is a hospital I have known for many years though in the past, it was not good hospital as such,”

The facility, located in Keiyo North sub county is a level 4 hospital though Governor Tolgos’ administration wants it classified as level 5.

It has a catchment of 415,000 people covering at least three counties of Elgeyo Marakwet, parts of West Pokot, Trans Nzoia and Baringo counties.

Health Executive Kiprono Chepkok told the meeting that understaffing remained a challenge in the facility.

“We are supposed to be having at least 142 nurses in the hospital to be able to comfortably handle the duty but we currently have 77,” said Chepkok.

According to the Governor, his government would establish an Intensive Care Unit ICU wing at the facility as well as lobbying for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI machine for the county referral hospital.

MRI is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body in both health and disease.

The hospital authorities took the Governor and the new board through a familiarization tour of the facility before the inauguration ceremony.