Private hospitals have called on the Ministry of Health to ensure fundamental reforms in the sector to avert future fraudulent occurrences.
They have, however, commended the Health CS Susan Wafula for the swift action against health facilities that were implicated in defrauding the National Health Insurance Fund through alleged fraudulent claims.
The Rural Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (Rupha) executive committee in a statement on Thursday proposed that the ministry’s department of standards be merged with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council’s inspections, licencing, finance and general purposes committee.
“During times of crisis, it is crucial that we reflect on the root causes of such unfortunate events and work collectively to address the systematic shortcomings that allowed them to occur,” they said.
They noted that the recent incidents have exposed critical flaws in the existing regulatory framework, and emphasised the need for urgent comprehensive reforms to safeguard the well-being of patients.
According to the Rupha executive committee, the consolidation would eliminate duplicate roles and responsibilities enabling the creation of a dedicated inspection, licencing, quality and standards committee.
“Such an entity independent of financial matters, would foster streamlined processes and facilitate the implementation of unified national standards for health institutions,” they said.
They further pointed out that out of the 16 functions assigned to KMPDC, only four pertain to the oversight of health institutions, hence neglects the key responsibility of ensuring the highest standards of care in hospitals.