Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) is set to recruit 2,000 more healthcare workers in order to improve the County’s health sector.
Out of the 2,000 targetted, a total of 1,691 health staff have already been recruited through the Public Service Commission (PSC) in readiness for opening of the 24 new hospitals.
The 24 hospitals are currently under construction across informal settlements in the capital city. The facilities are Level 2 and Level 3 hospitals.
The new recruits comprise 679 nurses while the rest are doctors and clinical officers, all of whom will be deployed to the new hospitals with bed capacity of 1,580.
Of the recruits, 989 were to report to Mama Lucy and Mathare Korogocho hospitals on Monday. Mama Lucy received 388 staffers, while Mathare-Korogoho received 601.
“We intend to operationalize 33 mid-level hospitals that have been dormant as part of our expansion of the scope of specialized health services. The hospitals will operate 24 hours,” said NMS Health Secretary Dr Ouma Oluga.
In June 2020, NMS had recruited 225 health workers as part of 5,000 health workers President Uhuru Kenyatta’s announced would be recruited by the national government to help in the war against Covid-19.
On Wednesday, October 21, 2020, NMS said it would hire more than 1,400 healthcare workers as the country was battling the second wave of Covid-19.
Nairobi has been facing shortage of healthcare workers as it had only 2,750 workers in the health sector including cleaners and drivers.
Attempts to hire more medical staff was hindered by a lack of quorum at the Nairobi County Public Service board.
The recruitment of new medical personnel comes days after The Nairobi City Management Service (NMS) moved some of its senior officers while demoting others and issuing some with warning letters due to unsatisfactory performance on Monday 5 April .
A total of 13 NMS officers were affected by the changes seen as NMS Director-General Mohammed Badi move to inject efficiency and transparency in the agency.
