Excitement Building as Opening of Tenwek’s New Outpatient Clinic Nears
With construction sounds filling the air, the excitement is building in Bomet as residents look forward to the opening of Tenwek Hospital’s new outpatient clinic, the Bomet Annex. Conveniently located at the site of a former nursing home, the facility has been completely renovated to meet the area’s immediate, emerging, and future outpatient medical needs.
The need for a city-based clinic is urgent. The hospital’s outpatient clinic treats, on average, 430 patients each day. It often takes the entire day for patients to be registered and evaluated, undergo tests, receive care, and be discharged. As one nurse explained, “Our work is never done. No matter how many people we see today, tomorrow we will be full again.”
A physician at Tenwek concurs, “We continue to be extremely crowded with long queues and long waiting times here in Tenwek Hospital Outpatient. It will be a great blessing for the Bomet Annex to open as soon as possible to serve many of these patients.”
When working people in Bomet experience illness or injury, they would like to receive the quality care Tenwek Hospital is known for. But they cannot afford to sacrifice a day’s work and pay to visit the main hospital clinic. As a result, they are missing the great opportunity for physical and spiritual healing that Tenwek offers.
The Bomet Annex will provide a full range of outpatient services in a convenient venue, attracting new patients while helping relieve congestion and improve efficiency at the hospital. Just as Tenwek’s regional network of dispensaries delivers compassionate care in Christ’s name to people where they live, the Bomet Annex will embody Tenwek’s mission and work in that city.
Funds Needed to Reach the Finish Line
Since 2014, Friends of Tenwek has already raised and invested $150,433 to help Tenwek Hospital purchase, renovate, and begin to equip the Bomet Annex clinic. This support has included acquisition of the land and facility, extensive renovations, and purchase of x-ray equipment. With the end of the project in sight, FOT is dedicated to raising $56,000 before the close of the 2017 calendar year.
After acquiring the property, Tenwek administrators made the strategic decision to conduct extensive repairs and renovations that would allow the facility to expand as needed. Rather than simply occupy the existing space, they developed a construction plan that created numerous examination and treatment rooms for patient privacy, diagnostic and laboratory service spaces, and administrative offices for medical professionals and chaplains. Future phases of the 1.2 acre site will accommodate additional services currently not available in Bomet, including counseling, mortuary, chapel, and community health.
In addition to creating all-new clinical spaces, renovation challenges have included the need to level the structure, which had an eight-inch difference in floor height from end to end, and the removal and replacement of the facility’s roof. While the work has caused some unanticipated delays, the finish line is in sight. The construction supervisor reports, “Every day, people are asking, ‘when will it be finished? Why is it taking so long? We want it open now!’”
Tenwek CEO Geoffrey Langat is just as eager to open the facility. “The Tenwek Hospital Bomet Annex will provide an opportunity to expand our services closer to where people are living and working,” he explains. “They will be able even to walk to get care, which will be comparable to that delivered at the Tenwek Hospital main campus. This meets our mission goal of quality service through healthcare as ministry in Christ’s name.”
FOT Board Secretary-Treasurer Don Hoover (center) visits the Bomet Annex in July 2017 with Geoffrey Langat, Tenwek Hospital CEO (left) and Dr. Stephen Burgert, Tenwek Hospital’s Medical Superintendent (right).
You can make a gift in support of the Bomet Annex here.
See photos of the renovation here.
Read the fundraising update here.
View an online video taken by FOT Field Director Dean Cowles here.
