GERTRUDE’S CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL UNVEILS A KSH 490 MILLION CHANDARIA MEDICAL CENTRE

President Uhuru Kenyatta and The First Lady Margaret Kenyatta 

moments after officially opening the Manu Chandaria Medical Center

at Gertrude's Children's Hospital. Looking on from Left, is Gordon

Odundo CEO Gertrude's Children's Hospital, Dr. Manu Chandaria, 

His Wife Aruna Chandaria .

Gertrude's Children's Hospital, the most established children's hospital in East and Central Africa, has officially opened its new state of the art wing; the Chandaria Medical Centre at its hospital branch in Muthaiga. The new wing which was officially launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta consists of Surgery, Radiology, Intensive and High Dependency Care (HDC)as well as Specialized Outpatient care units.

Gordon Otieno Odundo, Chief Executive Officer, Gertrude's Children's Hospital observed that the unveiling of the new wing was a transformation landmark of the hospital since the establishment over 60 years ago. 

 Founded by Colonel Ewart Grogan in memory of his beloved wife Gertrude, the exclusively children's hospital assisted by Partners has invested above KSh490 million for this ultra-modern facility. The Chandaria Foundation is so far the largest sponsor providing a grant of KSh100 million and KSh50 million from I&M bank. 

 The Chandaria Foundation's philanthropic activities cut across many sectors in Kenya. These include health and a scholarship fund to the Kenya Community Development Fund. Mr. Chandaria also serves on various government institutions, including the Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund, member of the Police Reforms Task Force, the National Economics & Social Council and the Environment Policy National Steering Committee.

On his part, Dr. Manu Chandaria noted that his foundation is committed to ensuring that the children's hospital gets enough support to invest in the latest equipment and facilities. "Gertrude's is a hospital with dedicated health professionals who have always gone beyond the call of duty to treat some extremely ill children," noted Dr. Chandaria. "The Chandaria Foundation will continue playing a leading role in aiding the hospital towards becoming a centre of excellence."

President Uhuru Kenyatta and The First Lady Margaret Kenyatta at the maternity ward.

In addition to new cutting edge equipment, the new facility will provide an additional 150 new employment opportunities as well an increased bed capacity to 103 beds.

Gertrude's Children's Hospital is a non-profit organization, chartered with responsibilities benefiting humankind such as providing health services, fostering good health, carrying our research and teaching healthcare professionals. The hospital board and management share the belief that hospitals can apply business acumen and enterprise in performing their responsibilities.

 Construction of the four-storey building, started in April 2011 and has a Radiology department, complete with a 128 slice CT scanner, being housed at the basement and 23 specialist outpatient clinics situated on the ground floor for better management of children. A dedicated surgical ward, is set on the first floor for greater specialization and development of surgery while the entire second floor takes the ultra-modern 10 bed ICU with adjacent 4 bed high dependence unit (HDU) including two isolation rooms and neonatal ICU beds.

Opening of this new facility in line with Gertrude's Children's Hospital's goal of providing the best available medical service care, professional and technical skills, improving responsibility to patients, both paying and non-paying, maintain a constructive relationship with all stakeholders and also improving knowledge by training people in paediatric care.

The surgical ward which was opened to the public in August 2013 has already seen several successful cardiac surgeries take place. Waiting time in the new Radiology department has also improved greatly as all specialized equipment is located in its own room. Similarly unlike in the past, CT-Scans that were conducted in other hospitals will be done in this department greatly reducing risk in transfer of patients not to mention ensuring timely intervention of critical cases.

The expansion project is a great milestone towards the hospital's aspiration to become a regional centre of excellence in paediatrics and moving forward the hospital seeks to expand its services to more towns as well as start a research and development centre that will provide solutions to different paediatric cases.