The Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu
Established in 1952, the Aga Khan Hospital , Kisumu is part of the
Aga
Khan Health
Services (AKHS). It is a 76-bed acute care facility managed by qualified professionals
who include experienced, full-time resident doctors and consultants. The hospital’s
objectives are to provide high quality, cost-effective health care to the population
of Western Kenya and neighbouring countries. The Hospital provides general medicine
services, specialist clinics and high-tech diagnostic services and has a well-equipped
24 hour emergency Casualty Department. It is also part of the AKHS international
referral system, with links to the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, and
the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.
History
On 26 February 1951, Prince Aly Khan laid the foundation for the
Aga Khan Dispensary and Maternity Home. Inaugurated in 1952, the
home had an 8-bed general ward.
In 1960, the dispensary was extended to incorporate two general wards with a
total of 17 beds and an outpatient department. A small laboratory was established
in 1975 and a portable X-ray machine purchased. Patient activity levels continued
to increase. By 1979, the average bed occupancy was over 100 percent, which indicated
a need for expansion.
In 1991, the hospital had 55 beds, piped oxygen gas was available,
an administration block was completed and physiotherapy services
were introduced. By 1992 the bed capacity had increased to 76
with a paediatric ward, a VIP wing and an acute care unit.
Aga Khan Health Services
The Hospital and primary medical centres are part of the
Aga Khan
health Services, which is one of the most comprehensive private
not-for-profit health care systems in the developing world. It
includes 325 health centres, dispensaries, hospitals, diagnostic
centres and community health outlets. Building on the Ismaili
Community's health care efforts in the first half of the 20th
century, AKHS now provides primary health care and curative medical
care in India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, and Syria. It includes
five general hospitals, seven maternity homes/hospitals and 187
health centres/dispensaries.
AKHS has facilities in Kenya and Tanzania that provide care to
over 600,000 patients annually in both rural and urban, and preventive
and curative contexts. Its hospitals provide an increasingly comprehensive
range of high-quality clinical services.
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out more about Aga Khan Health Services, Kenya
Healthcare Activities of the Aga Khan Development Network
AKHS activities are conducted in concert with other health-related
activities of the
Aga Khan Development Network
(AKDN). The overall aim is to raise the health status of people
in East Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. Emphasis,
in current projects, is on strengthening health systems development.
The
Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), with branches in Kenya, Tanzania,
and Uganda, works with a variety of grantees, including AKHS,
to improve the health of vulnerable population groups, especially
mothers and children, and promote health services development
on the national and regional levels.
AKF and AKHS have been joined in their work in health care in
East Africa by the Aga Khan University's Faculty of Health Sciences,
which offers accredited professional training, especially for
nurses, and conducts a variety of research programmes focused
on the health problems of developing nations.
The AKDN aims to assist countries in the building of effective,
sustainable health systems linking different kinds of services
and levels of care. For more information, please visit the AKDN
website:
http://www.akdn.org.
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