MOMBASA HOSPITAL COMPLETES PHASE III OF A MULTI-MILLION PROJECT

Coast Province's oldest hospital has posted a significant land mark in its history with the recent commissioning of Phase III of its on-going development programme. The major developments of the three-phased project commenced in l987 following its board's decision to increase the number of beds and provide better laboratory, outpatient, administrative and theatre facilities The new phase completed in April 1999, is an expansion that has added new facilities in hospital, including a four-bed Intensive Care Unit comprising a paediatric ICU, a three-bedded High Dependency Unit, two high specification operating theatres catering for all types of surgery refurbished and re-equipped kitchens, a new reception area, refurbished mess and doctors' flats, board and conference rooms, pharmacy and drug store, laundry, mortuary, incinerator, the Raflki Centre that houses canteen facilities for visitors and hospital staff, and the renovation of the old building.

With these developments, Mombasa Hospital has further strengthened its lead in health care and especially with the installation of modern diagnostic equipment and upgrading of its essential facilities The Intensive Care and High Dependency Units feature among other equipment, the front runner Hewlett Packard Monitoring and Draeger Ventilator equipment, manufactured by the internationally renowned Hewlett Packard that specialises in patient monitoring and documentation systems. The company's Viridia Monitor System that has also been installed at the Hospital includes an information centre which is computer based and gives a history of the patient's arrythmia, alarms, ST analysis etc, over a 24-hour period. The patient's vital signs are printed out at particular times, hence reducing paper work and that may occupy much of the nurses time and thus optimising on time by availing even more of it for the care of patients. Meanwhile, the Draeger Evita 2 Dura at the Hospital puts it at par with any leading hospital in the country in that the ventilator is the most sophisticated in the country. The equipment enables doctors to quickly have patients breathing normally again without depending on the ventilator. It uses the BIPAP new ventilation method that enables breathing to be as natural as possible hence assisting patients to revert to breathing independently. The ventilator has a built-in air compressor that precludes the need for compressed air cylinders translating to reduced costs for the patients and can also be used to ventilate new born babies.

ICU patients on ventilators can also now easily he transferred using the Draeger Oxylog Transport Ventilator that ensures efficient management of patients. The ICU is equipped with four section radioluscent ICU beds with hinged mattresses from Nesbitt Evans of England. The high technology equipment installed at the units are estimated to have cost Kshs. 30 million, with the nurses at the Hospital undergoing special training at the Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospitals over the last one year handling intensive care patients that supplemented the on-going in-house training. Developments at the hospital have greatly been supported by well-wishers and indeed, the initial sum of Kshs. 3.5 million towards the construction of the ICU was donated by the Premchandbhai Foundation, while Rafiki, the Hospital's League of Friends, contributed Kshs. 3.6 million for the purchase of specialised equipment for the very first dedicated neonatal and paediatric intensive care. The equipment acquired comprises a Draeger Babylog 8000SC neonatal ventilator will Hewlett Packard Neonatal Monitoring that has transcutaneous and carbon dioxide monitoring capability, besides monitoring of FCC respiration and oxygen saturation, the unit also has a Draeger Permox Oxygen Generator. Other donations have come from the Doshi Charitable Trust who funded the purchase of a Draeger Special Care Incubator to complete the paediatric and neonatal ICU bed. Investment on new equipment at the Hospital has been increasing over the years to keep pace with new demands in health delivery and technological advances in diagnostic and therapeutic equipment.  This has been continued in the latest developments at the Hospital, in which over Kshs. 8 million has been spent to equip the two high specification theatres. Equipment acquired for the theatres include an Eachman J-4 Section Operating Table, which is the first of its kind at the Kenya Coast. Other new equipment at the theatres are the cost-effective Draeger Juliian Anaesthesia System with Hewlett-Packard Viridia Monitoring Unit, Draeger Titus Anaesthetic Breathing System and Angineaux Lighting. According to the Hospital's Administrative Director Mr Abbas Nasser the theatres are fully equipped to provide for all types of surgery including neurosurgery and has the capacitv to undertake cardiac surgery in the future if necessary. In its September Newsletter, Mombasa Hospital outlines the pioneering measures it has taken to perfect health delivery in the country, which include the new Draeger Julian Anaesthesia - the first of its kind in Kenya - that guarantees lower dosage of anaesthetic agents and gas for a quicker recovery.  This is especially vital in lengthy operations like trauma cases.

With the new equipment and construction of the high specification theatres, the Hospital will soon be introducing laparascopic surgery that is also known as minimal invasive or key-hole surgery. Orders for the delivery of new equipment and instruments from Karl Storz to enable surgery through a telescope have also been placed and when fully operational, will further reduce the duration of surgery, while obviating the need for major incisions, thus enabling even faster recovery of patients in addition to reducing the cost of operations. With the completion of Phase III of the development programme, the Hospital plans to embark on a fourth phase and suggestions to this effect have been coming from its users and doctors, who among other things have so far proposed a new paediatric ward; conversion of the existing children's ward into a semi-private ward; improvement of the general wards; establishment of a physiotherapy department and creation of a Well-Woman Clinic and an Audiometric Screening Centre. Other proposals include the expansion, improvement and re-equipping of the Radiology Department which will involve the construction of an additional room to house the second digital screening unit and the purchase of an additional colour Doppler Ultrasound, a Mamography Unit and a Dialysis Unit. Plans are also underway to redesign the Hospital's water supply system. Latest achievements by the Mombasa Hospital also include the attainment of year 2000 compliancy and introduction of a Day Care service this April for patients who have to stay in the hospital for one day and at a much less cost. The Mombasa Hospital is a non-profit making organisation. It is owned and administered by the Mombasa Hospital Association and is today the oldest of the three leading private hospitals at the Kenyan Coast, having been opened in 1891. This long history has made Mombasa Hospital a landmark feature in the town, and explains the gazettement of the original part of the hospital, which has just been renovated under the Phase I1I project, as a national monument. The Mombasa Hospital Association was formed in 1947 and assumed responsibility for the Hospital and, in a joint venture with the Government, built the newer Mombasa Hospital that was opened in 1950.  Since then, the Hospital has undergone major changes that today makes it a leading medical institution with the just completed Phase II of its continuing development programme 'marking the latest works that have seen the Hospital change in response to the new technological advances and service philosophy morphosis in health delivery for efficient and cost-effective medicare.

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