Doctors: Ministry of Health never consulted us on fees
What you need to know:
Health experts have questioned the decision to regulate the fees, saying the government has not delivered on its public health mandate.
Private hospitals — maternity homes, clinics, non-profit and faith-based organisations as well as for-profit chains of hospitals — make up almost 47 percent of Kenya’s health institutions.
Almost all the doctors’ associations quoted in a Ministry of Health statement on fees review have denied being part of the process.
Consequently, they may not implement the 20 percent reduction in doctors’ charges.
Kenya Association of Private Hospitals Secretary-General Timothy Olweny on Tuesday told the Nation that the organisation would not implement a policy it is not party to.
The denials came barely a day after Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki sent a statement to newsrooms recommending the adjustment downwards of the 2016 gazetted guidelines for maximum and minimum fees charged by doctors.
DOCUMENT
“Based on inflation in the last three years, the 2016 fees would ideally have increased by a minimum of 21 percent,” the minister said.
Even with the changes, reconstructive and orthopaedic procedures remain the most expensive, at a maximum Sh640,000.
Ms Kariuki said Kenya Medical Association, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, National Health Insurance Fund and Pharmacy and Poisons Board officials unanimously endorsed the decision.
The CS added that the report would be submitted to the National Assembly’s Health Committee, though she did not provide a timeline.
The process, whose outcome resulted in the statement, attracted heated debates from ordinary Kenyans and medical practitioners.
On January 11, the ministry, in a tweet, said the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union would be tasked with making final touches on the document.
Contacted for comment, KMPDU Secretary-General Ouma Oluga directed the Nation to the Cabinet secretary.
Dr Oluga said the ministry was giving the union tasks meant for the medical board.
MANDATE
Health experts have questioned the decision to regulate the fees, saying the government has not delivered on its public health mandate.
Private hospitals — maternity homes, clinics, non-profit and faith-based organisations as well as for-profit chains of hospitals — make up almost 47 percent of Kenya’s health institutions.
They also employ the largest number of health professionals.
For-profit hospitals serve a small section of the population in a market driven by the forces of demand and supply.
In May 2017, Dr Stephen Ochiel, the chairman of the Private Practice Committee of the KMPDB, said private hospitals are businesses, just like hotels.
The gynaecologist, with 40 years’ experience, told the Nation that entrepreneurial doctors invest in their hospitals.
“A hospital is only as good as the personnel and the equipment therein,” he said.
Dr Ochiel added that comparing the cost of medical care in India and Kenya is wrong “because the latter imports drugs and equipment while India manufactures them”.
