NAIROBI, Kenya
Star Metropolis India has set up two laboratories in Nairobi with a capacity to deliver 4,500 different pathology tests to meeting growing demand from the region. The two labs, known as Star Metropolis have been set up in Upper Hill and Westlands, Nairobi, and will take care of almost 80% of the genetic testing workload locally, while the remainder 20% would be shared by Metropolis India.
In its next phase of expansion, Metropolis plans to set up five more labs in Kenya and another 5 labs in the neighbouring countries at a cost of Khs 250 million. The network of these labs would be further extended through more than 50 collection depots, thereby following the typical hub-and-spoke model of service expansion.
The central idea of this expansion plan is to make the Kenyan labs the hub for serving the entire East African region. Central to the optimism Metropolis saw in entering Kenya is the emerging local talent pool and their commitment to serve their people were.
The company decided to build majority of its operational capacities locally, rather than relying on foreign dependence.
Metropolis have planned a series of Continued Medical Education (CME) seminars, key among them the “Recent advances in Diagnostics”. This would be followed by a series of such CMEs planned throughout the year, aiming at knowledge exchange. To ensure global knowledge delivery, Metropolis will use its 150 medical specialists from across the globe. Local doctors will also be able to access Metropolis specialists for scientific case based discussions through emails and phone calls.
This scientific edge has been the strength of the company, which it intends to replicate in Kenya and East Africa. Bearing in mind that test costs would be a major factor in success, the development of local capacity has helped the company to give locally competitive prices. Metropolis labs always aimed for highest level of accreditations, so its quality practices would be replicated in Kenya.
This fine balance of good quality and cost has been made possible through automation and technology. The automation not only makes volume based quality testing possible, but also ensures maintaining excellent test turnaround time. Ends About Metropolis Metropolis Healthcare Ltd., founded by Dr. Sushil Shah in 1981, is India’s leading multinational chain of over 105 diagnostic and 700 collection centres across India, Sri Lanka, Africa and Middle East.
Metropolis provides 4500 specialized tests under a single roof ranging from oncology to genetics, molecular biology and immunoassays using best-in-class state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment. Metropolis caters to over 50,000 doctors, 10,000 laboratories and hospitals, processing more than 15 million tests annually.
Leave a comment