Public hospitals to be re-classified ahead of new health insurer

The government will in the next six months conduct a fresh categorisation of all hospitals ahead of the roll out of the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).

Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha told MPs that is because some of the hospitals were upgraded to higher level on political grounds yet they do not qualify to be in the said status.

Nakhumicha said they will not allow the current ills bedevilling the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), including hospitals colluding with staff to swindle the fund money to be transferred to the new body.

While appearing before the departmental committee on health that is investigating how hospitals colluded with NHIF staff to swindle the fund billions of shillings, Nakhumicha named facilities which she said are not operating in the right levels.

Do not qualify

She for instance named Kakamega where a hospital has been upgraded to a level four hospital yet it has no single theatre while in another instance is a hospital found in Kangemi, Nairobi county was upgraded to level four yet it is a health centre.

She said: “We have over 2,000 facilities operating in levels they do not qualify for and when we discover them, they run away. Some were upgraded because it was more of a political process.”

 Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council chief executive David Kariuki, said the re-categorisation will be done on health facilities that mostly offer in-patient services.

He said while carrying out the exercise they will also come up with standards that the said facilities must meet before they are categorised. “We will undertake a national exercise to re-categorise all facilities over the next six months especially those offering in patient services.”