The Afya House which hosts the Ministry of Health in Nairobi.
Multiplicity of laws, regulatory authorities, and lack of proper data has created a big mess at the Ministry of Health, the Presidential Task Force on Human Resources for Health (HRH) has told lawmakers.
Task force chairperson Khama Rogo on Monday told the National Assembly’s Committee on Health that the ministry that oversees matters health in Kenyan has many conflicting policy documents.
Professor Rogo told the committee chaired by Endebess MP Robert Pukose that the multiple laws had created 43 cadres of healthcare staff.
He said the policy, regulation, and legislation are a mess in the ministry and that the time had come to consolidate and strike out conflicting laws.
“We have looked at the Health Ministry organogram and sat with the Public Service Commission and found that it is not a progressive structure. You cannot tell who is answerable to who,” Prof Rogo said.
“We have seen that the technical and administrative parts are not working together. The divisions create a total civil war.”
Prof Rogo said the two Principal Secretaries for Medical Service and Public Health hardly talk to each other.
“People hardly talk to each other at the State Department for Public Health and Medical Services. It's like Rwanda and DR Congo,” he said.
“The numerous cadres are fighting each other. We have a situation where the national government and county governments don’t talk to each other. This cannot be allowed to go on.”
He said there exist many policy documents both at the Ministry and at the County level.
“There is no order, there are total contradictions. Most of the policy and legal documents are speaking at cross purposes,” Prof Rogo said when he appeared before the committee to brief MPs on the progress made so far.
The task force was established by President William Ruto to provide strategic guidance on optimising the planning, deployment, and management of healthcare personnel across the country.
The team also has a mandate of identifying and addressing the legal, policy, administrative, and operational constraints that currently impede the performance of the health sector in relation to HRH.
The task force is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping policies that will address workforce challenges and improve overall health service delivery.
Prof Rogo told MPs that regulatory bodies such as the Commission for University Education and the Ministry of Health had taken each other to court over the training of healthcare staff.
“The Ministry of Health does not know who is being trained by CUE, which is under the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education is graduating nurses and doctors and the Ministry of Health does not know who is graduating. We are unable to know who is being trained and when they will graduate,” Prof Rogo said.
Prof Rogo said Kenyatta National Hospital has 1,000 medical students who are paid by the counties and the referral facility cannot account for them.
He said there are people who have been training at Kenyatta National Hospital for 10 years and others who leave after four years.
Prof Rogo told lawmakers that the human resource area has been made worse with the entry of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVETs).
He said the standard of training being offered by the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) has gone down with every MP rushing to open a training facility in their constituencies.
“The quality of training at the KMTCs is a joke. MPs are demanding KMTC but there are no trainers. Some cadres are being trained in subjects that are not recognised in Kenya,” he said.
Prof Rogo said health data is not in on specific place and the country has no repository of data.
The task force told MPs that some critical health data is being held by donors and the Ministry is unable to guarantee their security.
Prof Rogo said the Ministry of Health has failed to focus on institutions such as Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) which can generate enough resources to run its affairs.
Mr Purkose said the committee will provide its views and help the task force enact laws to streamline the health sector.
