The Ministry of Health said hospitals need to be held accountable for how they treat patients.
Maybe your concerns were not taken seriously, or your complaints were brushed aside. That is the non-medical side of treatment – how hospitals listen, respond, and relate to you as a person – and it can shape your experience just as much as the pills or procedures.
Soon, health facilities will be held responsibility also for this kind of treatment of patients.
Dr Charles Kandie, the head of Health Standards, Quality Assurance, and Regulation at the Ministry of Health, said it plainly: hospitals need to be held accountable for how they treat patients.
He said the proposed Kenya Quality Model for Health Bill (KQMH) focuses on making sure patients get their rights when seeking health services.
Kandie explained they are looking at whether minimum health standards are met across all hospitals, whether public or private, and whether the communities around those hospitals have a say in how they’re run.
“Public participation is key,” he said.
He spoke at the heart of the 4th Annual Patient Family Care Symposium held at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), where hospital managers, doctors, and healthcare providers came together under the theme “Creating Solutions for Affordable Patient-Centered Care.”
“The bill will focus on whether facilities offer patients their rights when seeking health services. Are the minimum health standards accessible to all patients across all facilities, whether private or public? Lastly, we will also focus on whether the facilities give the communities around them a voice in the running of the health facilities, as this is key in ensuring quality is maintained in the facilities,” he said.
Edel Quinn Mwende, marketing manager at
KNH, shared how seriously they are taking patient feedback. “We have made sure
to include patient needs in everything we do. We have gone further to install
suggestion boxes at every point of the facility for patients to write their
suggestions, complaints, and proposals, which we check at regular intervals for
reviewing and implementation where we can. Where the issue is beyond us, we
escalate it to the necessary offices for necessary action.”
All hospital heads present confirmed that all feedback is good feedback, whether positive or negative, as it helps forge on the way forward in running the facilities with the patient’s needs in mind.
During a fireside panel discussion, the
panelists insisted on putting patients at the centre of everything the hospital
undertakes to ensure quality and satisfactory services.
