With the rapidly evolving technological space, KMPDC has kept pace in implementing digital solutions to both internal and external processes. A key milestone is that of the Online Service Portal (https://osp.kmpdc.go.ke) which allows medical and dental practitioners, community oral health officers and health facilities to renew their licenses remotely. The portal is fast and easy to use.

In addition, the Council has adopted the Electronic Board (E-Board) in conducting its meetings. The solution which was recently used during the 132nd Full Council Meeting is cost effective as it eliminates the use of paper. The E-Board also ensures security of documents by restricting access to unauthorized users. Management of internship has been revolutionized, thanks to the introduction of the internship management system which integrates all the internship related aspects such as balloting, application of internship licenses and internship centers transfers into one.

According to Duncan Mwai, Assistant Director ICT, already four (4) Cohorts have successfully balloted through the Internship Management System since its inauguration in November 2021. Further, the written part (Multiple Choice Questions-MCQ’s) of the pre-registration and internship qualifying Examinations for foreign doctors is conducted online.

To consolidate all internal operations, the Council has invested in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System, which seeks to provide essential office solutions such as Financial Management, Supply Chain Management, Human Resource Management, Customer Relationship Management just to mention a few. This is expected to streamline processes, save on costs, increase productivity and achieve efficiency.

Names of all registered practitioners and facilities will have their licensure statuses published by 31^st March of every year. This is in line with Section 9 and 10 of CAP 253 Laws of Kenya which mandates the Council to register and maintain a record of all practitioners in the country. This is inclusive of the records of retired and deceased practitioners.

The number of registered practitioners has been rising over the years due to the increase in the local universities offering Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS). There are 15,485 registered local doctors out of which 9,665 are licensed as at 11th April 2022. Further, out of the 1,259 registered foreign doctors, 327 are licensed.

Currently, the country has 11 medical and 2 dental approved schools offering undergraduate medical and dental training respectively. Students on internship are normally issued with internship licenses before acquiring a practicing license, which comes after successful registration with the Council. It is a contravention of the law for a practitioner to fail to renew their license as required.

All licenses including those of facilities expire on the 31st of December every year and one is required to initiate renewal before this date. Failure to adhere to this licensure rule attracts a fifty per cent (50%) penalty imposed on the license fees. The license renewal process has been simplified as it is done online. A doctor only needs to have attained a minimum of fifty (50) CPD Points, have secured an indemnity cover and be in good standing to be eligible for a practicing license.t

The inaugural Health Workforce Conference 2022 was a major milestone towards realization of health care reforms aimed at strengthening technical and soft skill competencies. The conference whose theme was ‘Repositioning today’s health workforce for the future’ focused on strengthening the technical and soft skill competencies and enhancing the global competitiveness and future job readiness of health professionals. It also focused on ensuring adequate response to the Country’s changing healthcare needs and strengthening capability and technical support from health professionals for the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda.

KMPDC played a key role as the secretariat to the conference with its Chair Dr Eva Njenga serving as the conference Co-Chair and CEO Daniel Yumbya as the head of the Secretariat. The conference which ran from the 7th to 9th of February 2022 attracted over 1,000 local and international delegates. After three-days of deliberations, the following resolutions which are expected bring transformative change to the health sector were made:

• The need to revise curricular of training the health workforce with a view to enrich it with skills based training and other competencies including specialist training to enhance patient centered care.

• Better harmonization in training amongst training institutions and promotion of affordable training through establishment of a training fund and medical education fund for teaching hospitals to fund trainees.

• Development of a comprehensive integrated health workforce information system and institutionalization of HRH tools such as Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) and Health Labour Market Analysis (HLMA). This will enable evidence decision making so as to effectively manage the human resource for health labour market.

• Streamlining the supply and demand of health workforce in the labour market for quality healthcare through guidelines on absorption, specialist training, retention of medical graduates and migration of health workers.

• The need for collaboration between universities and tertiary hospitals which are uniquely placed to support and prioritize research and implement research findings to improve patient outcomes.

• Development of a regulatory framework and standards to guide task sharing and common learner based curricular.

• Standardization and harmonization of scopes of practice for all cadres of health workers to match health professional competencies aligned to career progression pathways.

To ensure implementation of the conference resolutions, it was recommended that a Standing Implementation Oversight Committee (SIOC) be established.

Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council has developed the first ever scope of practice for general specialist and sub-specialist medical practitioners: general specialist and sub-specialist dental practitioners and diploma community oral health officers practicing. The new policy was adopted during the 132nd Full Council Meeting held on the Friday 25th March, 2022.

Application of the scope of practice is an important milestone in ensuring provision of quality healthcare. The scopes of practice provide the procedures, actions and processes that a medical/dental and community oral health officers is lawfully permitted to undertake in the course of discharging their duties. According to Dr Margret Mbugua the KMPDC Director, Standards and Professional Practice the scope of practice will also enhance the governments agenda towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage one of the major developmental pillars of the country.

The general expectations of all medical practitioners as per the guidelines include: the need to take appropriate and adequate clinical history, undertake appropriate physical examination, ensure accurate and up to date documentation in a manner that facilitates continued and safe patient care and advocate effectively for patients among others.

By providing these guidelines the scopes among other benefits works to protect practitioners from taking actions that may result in concerns of medical malpractice Development of the scope of practice was done through an inclusive and consultative process. Various healthcare stakeholders including medical/dental practitioners, community oral health officers, medical facilities, training institutions and various cadres and specialties represented by their respective medical associations were involved in the process. The Council will continue to periodically collect feedback regarding the scopes for the various cadres to ensure that they remain relevant and effective at all times.

The new health facilities categorization rules Gazetted on 31st of December 2021, aim at streamlining services offered by health facilities in the country. The rules which clearly stipulate the services a facility can offer vis a vis the infrastructural and human resource quality and capacity will affect over 15,000 registered health facilities. In the new categorization, there are 12 levels of health institutions with the primary unit being a Community Health Unit run by a community health extension worker. This facility offers preventive as well as promotive healthcare including early identificationcation and screening of health problems at community level. This is unlike the previous categorization which had seven (7) levels whose basic unit was a clinic. The clinic was categorized at level 2, the human Resource quality and capacity notwithstanding.

The basic level of any facility run by a medical or dental officer is now classified as level 3B, which constitutes of the general practice medical clinic and the general dental practice clinic respectively. According to John Kariuki, the Deputy Director, Licensing and Accreditation, the new guidelines are to the ultimate benefit of the general public who will now be able to identify where to get specific services. Health facilities and practitioners are now expected to familiarize themselves with the new rules available at https://kmpdc.go.ke/

In February 2021, a team from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) together with its associates conducted an inspection exercise of College of Surgeons of East & Central Africa (COSECSA) training institutions in Kenya, as part of KMPDC’s monitoring and evaluation framework.

The inspections, which took place between the 22^nd and the 26^th of February 2021, marked the second such exercise conducted by KMPDC, and was in line with the Council’s mandate to regulate the training of all medical and dental practitioners and community oral health officers (COHOs).

The team, appointed by the Council’s Chief Executive Officer Mr. Daniel Yumbya, also visited existing and proposed COSECSA training sites in order to ascertain whether or not they meet the minimum requirements to train residents in general surgery.

The week-long exercise targeted 24 sites and was aimed at advancing education, training, standards, research and practice in surgical care in the country. This will in turn, help increase the number of surgeons in Kenya which still remains very low.  

According to our data, there are only 581 licensed surgeons in the country. The COSECSA program therefore aims to bridge this gap through a unique in-service training, where the surgeons are taught within their countries of origin and in their respective counties. This not only reduces costs incurred by trainees if they were to study abroad, but also helps in surgeon retention post qualification at the place of study.

With most surgeons based in urban areas, this unique training program also aids in the distribution of the specialists across the country as most surgeons are retained in the specific counties where they studied.

Some of the COSECSA training sites that were inspected include the Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, PCEA Kikuyu Hospital, AIC Kijabe Mission Hospital among others.