The mobile clinics Prof. Lei says will deliver advance health care services to disadvantaged communities in rural set ups across the country
By Boniface Otieno Kanyamwaya
In Kenya, Nairobi’s Kenyatta National Hospital acts as the main referral and teaching centre for medical treatment, with other county hospitals taking referrals from their constituencies.
In rural areas, health centres provide services and dispensing clinics, though this often lacks facilities and trained staff.
With many health professionals leaving Kenya to find jobs abroad, there is a severe shortage of medical workers across the country.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Kenya has just one doctor and only 12 nurses/midwives for every 10,000 people which is way below the ration of 1: 1000 recommended by WHO.
It is out of this reason that Prof. Lei Wang, the First China Post-Doctor Aid to Africa who is in Kenya courtesy of a bilateral agreement between Kenya and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on medical cooperation is out to offer free medical aid to poor Kenyans as part of the growing bilateral cooperation between the two nations.
According to Prof. Lei who is the Deputy Head of the Expert group on the Qifei project, which is a collaborative project between China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and Kenya’s Ministry of Health, the Government of China has donated four modular state of the art container clinics to the Kenyan ministry of health to boost response to killer diseases in underserved Kenyan regions.
These clinics Prof. Lei says will deliver advance health care services to disadvantaged communities in Kenya.
The mobile clinics he notes are assembled using modern Chinese technology and their design is sensitive to the local environment in Kenya.
These facilities, which will be set up in Turkana, Mombasa and Nairobi, will offer convenient screening and treatment of fatal ailments that blights communities in marginalised areas.
“In this way, even the poor people will benefit from the Chinese overseas aid to Kenya thereby reaffirming China’s commitment to helping African countries improve health care services against a backdrop of a rising burden of infections and lifestyle diseases,” he says.
Lei come from a family of doctors as both his grandfather and father as well as his older brother is doctors in China.
“I was inspired to join the medical profession by watching my grandfather treating ailing patients,” he notes.
“I saw my grandfather turn the sorrow of patients into joy and this inspired me to study hard to become a doctor,” he added.
He then enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in medicine in the year 2000 and come 2010, he had attained a doctorate in the same field.
Because he was an excellent student, he says that he was able to complete studies in a shorter time than expected.
Lei who is also a professor at the Joint Laboratory of Psychosomatic Health, Institute of Psychology and Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences was inspired to come to Africa by watching a movie at a very tender age.
“I remember watching the Out of Africa and I immediately fell in love with the continent, “he says.
He notes that his visit to Africa came at a time when China required doctors to come to Africa as part of the Chinese overseas aid to Africa.
“ I was selected because I was the most suitable experienced candidate,” says the Associate Chief Physician who’s tour of duty in Africa will end in October.
“ I hope that I will have inspired a generation of Chinese doctor to provide high quality health service to the people of Africa in order to enhance even further the Sino-Africa friendship,” he concludes.
