Local health services provider Meridian Medical Centre has partnered with Inoorero University (IU) to set up a medical training college in Kenya by 2014.
Under a partnership signed on Friday, IU will provide the curriculum for the new college, while Meridian will offer technical backup.
Vice Chancellor Henry Thairu said IU is diversifying into health to boost its courses offering and help improve provision of healthcare in Kenya.
“It has actually come sooner than we thought in terms of diversifying into the health sector. We are also exploring other forms of partnership with foreign countries like Malaysia and Israel,” he said.
He said increasing training and expanding access to healthcare would help the country achieve its Vision 2030 goals by developing entrepreneurs in newer fields.
Meridian Medical Centre and IU will collaborate on the architectural plans of the buildings to design an effective medical clinic that can be developed into a para-medical training facility and later into a full teaching hospital, according to the memorandum.
Meridian Medical Services CEO Dr Peter Wambugu said medical teaching school will offer medical courses.
“We want to make Kenya a medical tourism hub and education hub. Inoorero University had the necessary knowledge and acumen needed to form the kind of partnership that we desired. Besides, IU provided a better platform and had other added values,” he said.
In the meantime, IU will provide customised training for Meridian staff from customer relations, management and other ICT related courses such as records management.
“Meridian team will identify training needs and IU will contact a training needs assessment before customising training in collaboration with the Institute of Executive Education,” said Prof. Thairu.
The training facility will also offer first aid short courses for domestic workers, drivers and community members.
Currently, IU offers degrees and diplomas in the key areas: business, law and ICT and getting into health is seen as a new stream in the competitive high education segment.
