Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Aden Duale has, on December 16, ordered a fresh crackdown against doctors accused of earning from private clinics during official working hours, saying the practice amounted to fraud against the public health system.
Duale said the trend had become widespread, with doctors stationed in government facilities sending patients to private hospitals they operated or worked in.
He said the practice denied public hospitals both patients and revenue, despite the doctors being on government payrolls between 8am and 5pm.
“It has become so rampant that doctors working in Government facilities are opting to send patients to private facilities they are operating in and either denying the facilities that pay them salaries or disregarding them completely,” the CS said.
The CS spoke in Tharaka Nithi County during the commissioning of a new ultra-modern Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and an amenity wing at Chuka Level 5 Hospital.
He said starting in January, new measures would be introduced to punish doctors found working elsewhere during official hours while attached to public facilities.
“Doctors keen on earning on locum at office hours, between 8am and 5 PM, are committing fraud,” Duale said.
He gave the example of Kenyatta National Hospital, which he said had 26 fully equipped theatres staffed by top specialists, yet patients were often given review or surgery dates two months away, only to be later contacted by assistants proposing next-day procedures at private facilities.
Duale directed the Digital Health Authority to take action against any doctor registered in a public hospital who made claims from private facilities during working hours, saying such cases would be flagged from January.
Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki backed the warning and accused some doctors of using public hospitals as retention grounds for private practice.
“Some doctors were extremely ambitious but wanted many jobs to make more money,” Njuki said.
He further added that some county hospitals were better equipped than the private facilities patients were being referred to, adding that monetary incentives were driving some doctors to deny public facilities resources.
Duale said doctors’ unions had also been put on notice over the practice, and accountability would be enforced across the public health system.
The ICU commissioned in Tharaka Nithi was the first of its kind in the region, with an initial five-bed capacity and two isolation units for critically ill patients.
