The Ministry of Health (MoH) has banned non-graduate clinical officers and nurses from performing surgeries in Kenyan hospitals.
According to the Task Sharing Guidelines of 2017 launched by the MoH, non-graduate clinicians will no longer be allowed to perform ‘specialized’ surgeries over claims of incompetence and poorly conducted surgeries.
The MoH in its directive forbid the non-graduate clinicians from performing any “specialised” surgeries such as amputation, removal of hernias and uterus, post-mortems amongst others.
Reports indicated that the decision by the MoH had been arrived at after an outcry from the public during the doctors’ strike that surgeries performed by the clinicians who stepped into man medical facilities had turned fatal.
In some cases, the surgeries were said to have resulted in injuries at the surgery table, brain damages due to improperly monitored anaesthesia and malpractice due to lack of specialised supervision.
In a quick rejoinder, however, Clinical Officers Union secretary George Giboro stated that their members had been undermined by the MoH and the doctors.
Giboro added that the clinicians were performing a “donkeys” job in health facilities but were not being duly recognised for their efforts.
According to records from the MoH as of 2016, there were 11,290 practising clinical officers in Kenya. Public health workers - nurses and midwives - stood at 45,018 while medical doctors were 6,675.
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