St. Georges University is targeting to increase the number of Kenyan students joining its medical programmes with opportunities to practice in more than 50 countries upon graduation.
Speaking during a workshop with academic counsellors from various schools in Kenya, Uganda and Botswana, SGU Regional Director for Africa Bradley Wade said the institution is keen on providing a route to students from the region to become doctors other international markets through its School of Medicine besides contributing to expanding the local medical skills pool.
“In Africa and sub-Saharan Africa we have between 50-60 new students joining our programme every year and we have new students from Kenya every year of somewhere between 5-10 at the moment and we are hoping to expand the offering to give more opportunity to more Kenyan students,” said Wade.
According to data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Kenya currently has a doctor to patient ratio of 19 per 100,000 which is way below the World Health Organization’s recommended ratio of 100 doctor per 100,000 patient.
Through its medical programmes, SGU which is based in Granada also targets to encourage transfer of international knowledge which is vital in advancing local healthcare systems.
“The initial mission and long term mission of SGU is really to help plug the shortage of physicians worldwide there is a significant shortage of healthcare professionals not just in the US where our students want to practice but all over,” said David Anthonisz, SGU Executive Director for International Student Recruitment.
Kenyan students graduating from SGU will also have a chance to practice in the United States and the United Kingdom where the university has partnerships with more than 70 hospitals.
“We are actually, for the past 11 year now, the largest provider of new doctors into first year US residency and into the US healthcare system more than any other medical school in the world and we are currently the largest source of licensed practicing physicians, more than 15,000 in the US,” added Wade.
Currently, about 60pc of students joining the programme are United States citizens, 20pc are from Canadian while the rest are from the rest of the world. To date, SGU says it has contributed more than 23,000 doctors to the global workforce.
