NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 5 – The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) and allied health sector unions have urged Parliament to shoot down the Health Amendment Bill, 2021 saying it poses a threat to the health sector.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, the KMPDU officials stated that the bill seeks to interfere with the independence of the health sector and prevent it from self-regulating itself.
KMPDU Secretary General, Dr Davji Atellah termed the bill an attempt to capture of the essential services saying the removal of professionals from the councils and boards will result in the loss of regulations in place in the event the bill is passed.
He added that the bill has also removed the cadres from managing the health facilities and replaced them with non-professionals.
“Very soon we will have hospitals and different facilities being led and being managed by non-medical professionals and in this regard the technical know-how and operations of those facilities will be lost,” he said.
Atellah added that the bill provides that members of the council and board will be directly appointed by the Cabinet Secretary responsible for health services saying the provision will result in the appointment of political appointees as opposed to professionals.
“As professionals we believe that peer to peer regulations is under national process and must be well observed in our country for us to get quality services for every institution and to every level,” he said.
The KMPDU Secretary General added that all the recommendations that the union gave to the House health committee after the first reading had not been considered in the final draft of the second reading.
Atellah called on all Kenyans to object to what he termed as state capture of essential services
Peterson Wachira, the Chairperson Kenya Union of Clinical Officers said that only the members of parliament will save the country from the ‘tragedy’ about to befall the health sector with the passing of the bill.
He accused the government of being on mission to undermine the heath workers since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country on March 2020.
“Now they want to come into the regulations that ensures the quality of the products the we have, the quality of the doctors, and they want to replace the technical professionals with political appointees.
The unions said that the majority in the regulatory body, that regulates the trainings and the practice, will be from people who don’t understand what the health professionals are doing. The consequence of this is that we are going to have half-baked medics and also lower the quality of services at the health facilities,” he said.
Wachira further said that the health amendment bill will prevent the achievement of the ambitious Universal Health Coverage (UHC) scheme in the country adding that the quality of service is among the pillars that make up the UHC.
“We are here to ask parliamentarians that the health laws amendment bill of 2021 deserves only one action and that is rejection and rejection in total, so that we can go backseat and with consultations we can be able to come up with a bill that is progressive and a bill that is going to work for Wanjiku,” he added.
He warned that if the bill passed, they will be forced to rally their members not to subscribe or renew licenses or register with those bodies and council saying it will be state regulatory bodies.
Dr Tim Theuri, the President of the Kenya Dental Associations, who also spoke, said that there has been a systemic and very well calculated move that the health professionals are not being recognized and not being allowed to do their work in the country.
He stated that the health bill doesn’t differentiate between regulatory and management bodies such as NHIF and KEMSA which will affect health services.
“Self-regulation is being thrown out of the door. Yet this is the strongest thing that we have as professionals to ensure the quality of healthcare that Kenyans are getting is the highest. The moment, we have fewer professionals then that is thrown out of the door,” he added.
Another official, Cliff Randa from the Laboratory Union, called on the MPs to listen to the professionals adding that they are willing to talk to come to an understanding and give Kenyans quality services.
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