Mount Kenya University is investing Ksh40 million in the construction of a modern electronic health hub to enhance access to medication for students and staff as well as Ksh50 million in a mortuary for unidentified bodies.
The university’s Chairman, Dr Simon Gicharu, said Ksh10 million will be channeled to purchase modern electronic equipment while Ksh30 million will facilitate operations and deployment of manpower to oversee the centre, which will be put up within its main campus in Thika over the next one year
Speaking during a free medical camp organized by the university in collaboration with Kiambu County and doctors from India, Dr Gicharu stressed the need for innovation to deal with the challenges being faced in the medical industry.
He pointed out that with modern technology, access to medical services through electronic gadgets such as mobile phones is the way to go. Dr Gicharu said that research and assembling of requisite equipment will be launched in two months’ time.
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“There are people who have taken these initiatives to other parts of the world but we want to customize our e-Health because what is applicable in America may not be applicable in Africa,” he said.
Meanwhile, the university will also spend another Ksh50 million to put up a morgue to preserve unidentified bodies collected by the police.
Gicharu said that the construction of the morgue at Kiandutu near Thika cemetery grounds in collaboration with Kiambu County was informed by the piling number of uncollected bodies at Thika General Kago Funeral Home constructed by the university at a cost of Ksh91 million.
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He said that the facility will have a capacity to handle a hundred bodies. “There is an alarming pile up of bodies at the funeral home which is obstructing our original mission of the facility. We will partner with the county Government of Kiambu to put up a new facility with a capacity of 100 bodies that will specifically cater for unclaimed bodies that are collected by police,” he said. (Story by LUCY WANGAI / KNA)
