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Aga
Khan Hospital Nairobi took
a
major step in its evolution as a premier teaching and tertiary care
referral hospital when it formally came under the management of
Aga Khan University (AKU)
on
July 01, 2005. Plans for the
University
Hospital
include development of state-of-the-art
programmes for the management of major illnesses including cardiovascular
diseases and cancer,
which will save many Kenyan patients the significant expense and inconvenience
of travelling abroad for treatment.
Established
in 1958 and currently a 254-bed facility, the hospital had been
operating under the aegis of Aga Khan Health Service,
Kenya
. This
decision
to upgrade
the Hospital was taken by the Chancellor of AKU, His Highness the Aga
Khan in consultation with the Board of Trustees of AKU.
Renamed
Aga Khan
University
Hospital
,
Nairobi
(AKUH,
Nairobi
)
and
duly registered and licensed by the Medical Practitioners
and Dentists Board of Kenya,
the new
institution will be
AKU's principal Health Science teaching facility in
East Africa
.
The
University
Hospital
is
focusing on high
quality of care, research and Postgraduate
Medical
Education
(PGME)
in
all major clinical
specialities including medicine, surgery, radiology, pathology, anaesthesia, obstetrics-gynaecology
and paediatrics. AKUH
(
Nairobi
)
will also continue to play a vital role as
a major teaching site for the Advanced Nursing Studies (ANS) programme of AKU,
which has provided
continuing professional education and undergraduate courses for
practicing nurses in
Kenya
,
Tanzania
, and
Uganda
since 2001.
Commenting
on the
upgradation
of the Hospital, Mr
Azim Virjee
,
Chairman of the Aga Khan Health Service
Kenya, said, " The transition
to a University Hospital
will
make quality health care more accessible to a broader cross-section
of the local population. The
University has done this at
Aga Khan
University
Hospital
in
Karachi
,
Pakistan
by mobilising funds in support of a Patient Welfare Programme and
expects to do the same in
East Africa
".
AKU's
Postgraduate
Medical
Education
Programmes,
which have
been
offered
at
AKUH
Nairobi) and the
Aga Khan
Hospital
in
Dar-es-Salaam since 2004,
are
specially
designed
to respond to the health needs of the
region. By
training independent specialists
ready to take up practising
posts
in public and private sector hospitals in East Africa, AKUH
(
Nairobi
)
aims
to assist in
significantly
enhancing the number
of qualified professionals in
specialist care in a region that has long suffered from workforce
attrition and an
increasing
disease
burden.
"The
upgrading to a
University
Hospital
under
AKU will
enable us to have significant positive impact on the quality of
medical care and to
provide
the
necessary clinical experience to meet
its
educational
objectives. Introduction
of modern facilities and installation of advanced information technology will ensure
the necessary support for clinical work of the highest quality" said Mr
Sagie Pillay
,
Chief Executive Officer of AKUH
(
Nairobi
).
"An
essential feature of any
University
Hospital
is to teach as well as to conduct research in endemic health problems of the
region," said
Prof.
Peter
Ojwang,
Chair of Pathology at AKUH (
Nairobi
).
"Over
the past two decades, the
Aga Khan
University
has established a solid track record of research
and
appreciates
that the health problems
of
East
Africa
,
beset by economic difficulties
and low development indicators,
can be addressed through relevant research focusing on evolving low-cost and accessible solutions. We,
the faculty
and students at AKU are delighted
to have AKUH (
Nairobi
)
as the latest centre for research
in this part of the world."
With
this new development, AKU
and AKUH
(Nairobi)
also
aim to strengthen existing partnerships with the Ministry of Health
and other Kenyan universities
offering health education,
with a view to share experiences, strengthen public sector delivery
systems and collaborate on teaching and
research.
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