CoG Health Committee Chair urges patients to report doctors sending them to private clinics for profit

Health practitioners have been warned against diverting patients from public hospitals to private clinics, a practice that has reportedly left many Kenyans paying twice for care they should receive at county facilities.

Council of Governors (CoG) Health Committee Chair Muthomi Njuki said the trend is becoming widespread, with some doctors using public hospitals to build patient lists before sending them to their private facilities for profit.

Speaking on Wednesday during a surprise visit to Chuka Level 5 Hospital, Njuki said he found doctors absent from duty and warned that disciplinary action would be taken. He called for a circular from the county CECM to hold doctors accountable and urged patients to anonymously report cases of diversion.

“It is emerging that there are doctors who are shuttling patients between county facilities and their private facilities and, at times, charge them twice, as they seek to maximise on profit or expect payments from the Social Health Authority (SHA),” Njuki, also the Tharaka Nithi Governor, said.

He noted that the problem is not limited to doctors alone but includes nurses, clinical officers and specialists.

“We have realised how our own people who are entrusted with our patients and are being paid using the taxpayer’s money have taken this job because it pays well, and are the same people who are referring our patients to their clinics with the excuse that there is no medicine,” he added.

“They leave the medicine and the labs here and refer them to clinics, and as a result, our people have really suffered because some have to pay twice.”

He explained that some doctors work in public hospitals only an eighth of their scheduled time while spending the remainder in their private clinics, despite receiving a non-practising allowance intended to limit private practice to off-hours.

To curb the vice, Njuki directed the county CECM to issue a circular warning doctors on duty of the consequences if they fail to attend work as required. He also called for a feedback mechanism allowing patients to anonymously report any doctor who refers them unnecessarily to private facilities.

“Any patient who is sent to a private clinic by the same doctor who treated them here, when they come back, they should be able to report so that we can assist,” he said.

“The problem is not even the patients because they are so scared of the doctors that some of them, when you ask them questions, become timid and hide.”

Njuki emphasised that counties have invested heavily in healthcare from both the national and county governments, and exploiting patients will not be tolerated.

He urged the doctors’ union to act swiftly, warning that counties would take stern action against any practitioner violating established protocols.

The government has been cracking down on health facility malpractice nationwide, with the Ministry of Health shutting down at least 1,000 facilities for fraudulent practices.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said the crackdown has uncovered rampant malpractice, including upcoding, falsifying records, converting outpatient visits into inpatient claims and billing for non-existent patients.

Other Topics To Read

• Health
• Social Health Authority
• private hospitals kenya
• Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki
• Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) scheme
• Private Hospitals
• SHA fraud
• Muthomi Njuki
• private clinics
• CoG Health Committee Chair urges patients to report doctors sending them to private clinics for profit
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He noted that the ministry has adopted a zero-tolerance approach since he assumed office in April, implementing a new digital system to detect and eliminate the loopholes that crippled the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).