Bungoma County government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) that will see residents get admission slots and bursaries to join the medical training institution.
In the MoU, KMTC will co-ordinate and administer bursaries and scholarships to needy students and clearly state the proportion of bursaries that will go to students in the county.
Speaking after the signing of the pact at KMTC Bungoma campus, Governor Kenneth Lusaka said he was keen on ensuring that primary healthcare is realized and the MoU will go a long way to ensure that health centers in the villages have sufficient staff.
Governor Lusaka noted that key staff who run medical facilities in the county come from the institution adding that the agreement will be a solution to the lack of human resource challenge in the county’s medical department.
Bungoma will also benefit from continuous professional development courses for health workers in the health department where KMTC will carry out training assessments to build capacity among workers.
They will further recommend the number and qualifications of staff required to be deployed by the county to support teaching and learning;
The county government on the other hand will identify training programmes that should be accorded priority due to their demand and relevance.
It is also expected to allow access and accord KMTC students preferential treatment in the allocation of slots at the clinical attachment in county medical facilities such as the Bungoma County Referral Hospital.
The county will further deploy teaching staff among their medics to KMTC campuses and also provide on-site technical and professional guidance to students throughout the clinical attachment period.
Lastly, the county is expected to provide infrastructure e.g. land, classroom, administration block, library, skills lab, computer lab, hostel, teaching equipment and furniture to KMTC campuses.
KMTC CEO Dr. Kelly Olouch hailed the agreement saying it will go a long way in building capacity among medical workers in Bungoma and also ensure that the county has enough medical staff.
The college board Chairman Zachary Muita said they will ensure that the MoU is followed to the letter.
He however discouraged the mushrooming of additional KMTC campuses saying effort should be put on already existing ones.
“There is a tendency of every MP wanting a KMTC in his home area which isn’t possible, we should now concentrate on making the already existing ones more formidable,” he said.
Also in attendance were Bungoma KMTC Campus Principal Elizabeth Ndura and CEC for Health Dr. Andrew Wamalwa.
By Achola Bulimo Mathews
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