Clinicians want all public referral hospitals to adopt a payment model of pay-per-case attended for surgeons and other consultants.
This will help to address the issue of having very highly paid consultants who do not show up for work or devote very little of their time to public facilities and spend most of their time in other private facilities.
Per-case payment is a financing method where third-party payers pay physicians/hospitals according to the cases treated rather than per service or bed days.
A report released by the World Bank in 2020 said absenteeism is one of the main challenges facing public health with doctors recording the highest rates of absence at 37.6 per cent.
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers in their submissions to the Senate want all county-Level 5 health facilities upgraded to Level 6.
“The upgraded facilities should be fully equipped and staffed with the requisite personnel to the level of Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, and Kenyatta University Teaching, Research, and Referral Hospital,” KUCO chairperson Peterson Wachira said.
“This will improve access and capacity of the apex referral facilities and take them closer to the people in line with UHC. Level 4s can then be upgraded to level five and all others in that order.”
Appearing before the committee that is investigating cases of medical negligence of patients in public health facilities, the team acknowledged the need to create a standardised and well‐structured accountability framework that tackles medical negligence in healthcare systems.
According to the union, there is a discrepancy in the distribution of the few professionals in the country, with most of them only stationed at the Kenyatta National Hospital and by extension Nairobi Metropolis.
“There is an acute shortage of professional health workers in our health facilities to adequately serve the influx of patients seeking health services in public health facilities,” KUCO secretary general George Gibore said.
They also want Level 5 facilities to have at least one fully equipped ICU to avoid unnecessary deaths.
