KU referral hospital stuck with temporary managers

Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRH) is facing a management crisis with top management positions filled temporarily for an indefinite period pending substantive appointments.

The Ministry of Health recently appointed Wekesa Masasabi to head the hospital before he starts his terminal leave in May, leaving the position vacant yet again.

Dr Masasabi who has served at the Ministry of Health as the director-general will replace Andrew Toro who was also appointed in acting capacity in April last year and has been recalled to the ministry.

Dr Masasabi’s appointment vetoed that of the hospital’s board chairperson Olive Mugenda who had appointed the director of clinical services Victor Njom to be the Acting CEO just a day before.

KUTRH opened its doors late last year after years of inactivity that was partly blamed on an ownership and management dispute.

The public university had insisted on owning it.

The 600-bed hospital built at a cost of Sh8 billion is a State corporation that will be run by a board. The hospital was turned into a State corporation under the Health Ministry after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed an order to that effect.

In the order, the President said the hospital be run by a CEO and a board of management consisting of a non-executive chairperson appointed by the head of State, a few principal secretaries, top university managers and other State officials.

The hospital has 28 intensive care unit (ICU) beds and a neonatal intensive care unit.

It is expected to help decongest Kenyatta National Hospital, a referral facility whose bed capacity has remained flat at 1,800 over the years despite demand ballooning to an annual average of 700,000 for inpatients and 600,000 for outpatients.

Apart from the ICU, the KU hospital has eight operating rooms and will provide dialysis services, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerised tomography (CT Scan).