Interview with JOOTRH boss Dr Richard Lesiyampe

By Peter Ochieng

On Friday, December 20, 2024, the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) Training School graduated 46 healthcare professionals having undergone a 6-month to 1 year training in Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Healthcare Assistant and Peri-Operative Theatre Technology.

The event was presided over by Dr Gregory Ganda, Kisumu County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Medical Services, Public Health, and Sanitation, and attended by among others, JOOTRH Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Richard Lesiyampe.

We caught up with Dr Lesiyampe for a brief chart.

NR: What is your feeling today?

RL: Today we’re celebrating, you know, the great achievements we have had at Jaramogi, being a specialized center to treat special conditions, and indeed, that is the reason why we are building on our human capacity.

NR: Is there a possibility of technology replacing professional healthcare providers?

RL: It is the human being that manages everything. In fact, our theaters, our equipment have no meaning without human beings. In healthcare, human intervention is very, very critical. You know, technology cannot replace human beings, and that's why we are focused on human resource in healthcare.

We are going to become a specialist facility in the management of all conditions in this region.

NR: Kindly speak about plans of making this facility a premier hospital in the country?

RL: We are now focusing on making sure that we have more theaters, so that we have more space, you know, to conduct some of those surgeries. We have also gone ahead, you know, to have more dialysis equipment so that we manage those complicated and specialist conditions.

We are also going to open Victoria Hospital next year, you know, also to provide additional space for those who require health care services in this region. We are getting a lot of support from the county government to ensure that Jaramogi becomes the premier hospital, not only Western Kenya, but actually in Kenya.

NR: What is the duration of the training?

RL: It takes six months to one year depending on the course. And it's very important to appreciate that for you to run a specialist hospital, you need people with special skills, and that's why we are saying that we have to get theater operators who are actually competent and skilled.

NR: How many JOOTRH staff graduated today?

RL: We only have about eight staff who graduated today. The rest are Kenyans, you know, from different walks of life. And we actually advertise every year, twice a year, we advertise in March and September, and we get these students to come for this training.

NR: Finally, what are your future plans? Going forward, we want to expand the training. We already have nephrology training, which is actually for managing dialysis patients. We are also going to introduce oncology training, you know, to produce specialists to manage cancer patients.

We also intend, you know, going forward, to see that we also introduce other nursing courses, particularly for specialist management of our patients.