The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) has clarified that hospitals that have recently suffered closures should wait at least three months before appealing.
In a clarification published on August 5, the council, through its CEO, David Kariuki, revealed that appeals for facility closures, partial closures or downgrades would only be addressed after 90 days.
This, KMPDC noted, was to allow for the facility to address any issues that may have led to the categorisation changes first.
“The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) has received several inquiries from facility owners and stakeholders regarding the levels and bed capacities assigned to their facilities,” part of the statement read.
“We wish to clarify the following: Appeals arising from the closure, partial closure or downgrade of a health facility shall only be addressed 90 days after the change in status to allow the affected facility to comprehensively address all identified gaps.
KMPDC further noted that since such changes have significant effects on the operations of other relevant government agencies, these facilities were expected to operate strictly within their licensed scope to avoid unnecessary disruptions and inconveniences to the broader health system.
The council also clarified that any facility seeking to update its assigned bed capacity must submit an official written request for inspection to its official compliance email by August 8.
“A verification process is currently ongoing to confirm the status of facilities based on these requests,” the statement read in part.
“All applications are being processed in the order they were received. Once a request has been submitted, applicants are advised to exercise patience as their matter is scheduled and addressed.”
This comes two months after KMPDC announced that it had closed 728 health facilities across the country, including 394 in Nairobi, in a fresh crackdown on non-compliant facilities in June.
The closure followed a crackdown in a bid to enforce the Inspections and Licensing Rules, 2022, aimed at improving patient safety and ensuring quality healthcare delivery.
While speaking to Kenyans living in the United Kingdom a month later, on July 3, President William Ruto revealed that at least 1,000 health facilities had been closed for perpetrating fraud in the administration of the Social Health Authority (SHA).
