City Hall will employ more than 300 health workers to help cushion the workforce deficit in the county hospitals.

This will mark the first phase of the planned employment of 2,500 workers in all the county health facilities.

Governor Mike Sonko on Thursday said the county is determined to address the deficit in the county’s health sector.

The new employees will be distributed equally across all the 39 health facilities in the county.

Those to be employed are 260 nurses and clinical officers, and 60 medical officers.

“We are going to advertise these jobs and we expect them to be on duty as early as February next year,” Sonko said.

The next phase of employment will be done in June next year and another 500 health officers will be employed.

Nurses and clinical officers who have been working as interns and volunteers will be given priority.

The Governor further ordered that the agreement reached a fortnight ago between the county and health workers be effected without delay.

All promotion letters have now been issued to all the health officers as the county prepares for the second phase of promotions.

The Governor was speaking during the official launch of the Queue Management System at the Mama Lucy Hospital in Embakasi.

The Sh5 million system, which was installed in September, will ease congestion at the facility that serves close to 1,200 patients a day.

The new system allows patients to meet a vendor when they come in, pick a ticket number which is collected at various clinics in the hospital.

According to Mama Lucy Hospital medical superintendent Musa Mohammed, the new system has seen previous challenges experienced reduce significantly.

“We have made tremendous progress despite the few challenges at some of our departments,” Mohammed said.

The UAP Old Mutual foundation Chairman Dr Peter Muthoka said the foundation is determined to keep partnering with the county in supporting vulnerable communities in healthcare financing.

“The foundation remains committed to working with local governments in supporting vulnerable communities and initiatives geared towards healthcare financing,” Muthoka said A new TB centre has been completed at the Mama Lucy facility and will be launched next week.

The 66-bed capacity new maternity wing will also be opened officially early next year.

Embakasi West MP George Theuri who was also present hailed governor Mike Sonko for his development record in Nairobi.

The legislator told of city MPs who criticized the Governor last week, noting that their accusations were baseless and uncalled for.