![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thefocuspaper.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG-20260729-WA0010-682x1024.jpg\")
Hospital officials also say the new service will significantly reduce treatment costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Open heart surgery in private hospitals costs between Sh1.7 million and Sh 1.9 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At JOOTRH, the procedure will cost between Sh400,000 and Sh 700,000 because the public hospital does not charge for human resource costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hospital says patients registered under the Social Health Authority (SHA) will have the procedure fully covered, with the scheme reimbursing about Sh 950,000 for each cardiac surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Sadia said offering specialised cardiac services closer to home would ease both the physical and financial burden on patients and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When these patients have to travel to Eldoret, to Nairobi, or to the Coast to get care, they get tired after walking 10 metres, 50 metres. It’s a deep ask,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
JOOTRH plans to begin by performing up to 10 open-heart surgeries each month, with a target of about 120 procedures in its first year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The programme will be supported by three resident cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiac anaesthesiologists and specialised cardiac nurses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hospital staff are undergoing training on the new equipment, including factory-based instruction in Germany and local operational training for theatre personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JOOTRH says it will initially work with experienced external cardiac surgery teams before transitioning to fully independent operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to hospital officials, Kenya requires nearly 10,000 open-heart surgeries each year, but existing facilities are able to perform only between 1,000 and 1,500 procedures annually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They say the additional capacity at JOOTRH will help reduce that gap and improve access to specialised cardiac care in western Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Patients in western Kenya requiring open-heart surgery are set to benefit from improved access to specialised treatment after Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) acquired a new heart-lung machine. Hospital officials say the German made Essence Perfusion System, manufactured by Livanova, will allow the Kisumu based referral hospital to expand its cardiac surgery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thefocuspaper.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG-20260729-WA00111-1024x682.jpg\")