The Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority (KHPOA) has flagged a quarter of medical training institutions in the country for non-compliance with professional training manuals and regulations.
Speaking during the official opening of the Kenya Society of Orthotrauma Technologists (KESOTT) Scientific Conference at a Kilifi hotel on Thursday, KHPOA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Jackson Kioko said that the authority had inspected 350 medical training centers and 87 were found to be non-compliant.
Dr. Kioko said that the country was facing the risk of unqualified but graduate health professionals handling patients, a situation that he said might cripple the health sector.
“We have been able to inspect 350 training facilities but I can tell you that 25 percent of them are actually non-compliant to norms and standards. We are going to work with other agencies to ensure non-complying institutions stay closed, because most of them do not even have required infrastructure while others have very few teachers compared to the number of students,” he said.
“There is need to standardize trainings of health professionals in this country, especially in the backdrop of what we have noted in regards to mushrooming of training institutions in this country,” he added.
Dr. Kioko cited instances individuals present themselves as health professionals yet they are unlicensed, saying that going forward, all health professionals entrusted to manage a patient will be required to have a practicing license.
KESOTT outgoing President, Dr. Stephen Fondo urged county governments to employ more orthopaedic traumatic technologists, saying that only 300 technologists have been employed across the 47 county government hospitals countrywide.
“Our numbers are still low and it is not right to have level five, four or three hospitals having two technologists because attending to even one patient needs at least two or three technologists,” he said.
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The society’s President, Dr. Henry Ondanje, said that the association is working closely with neighboring countries to ensure teaching of best practices to boost employment opportunities across East Africa.
KHPOA was formed after the enactment of the June 2017 Health Act No. 21 into law, which brought together several health-related laws to facilitate the implementation of the Health Policy and address several gaps in the Health Sector, such as regulation of health products and technologies among others.
Its main mandate is to provide oversight in health care services such as training, registration and licensing of health professionals and also coordinate health inspections jointly with other agencies.
By Nehemiah Okwembah
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