Health unions call for withdrawal of Quality Healthcare Bill

Health Sector Caucus Chair Peterson Wachira. [File, Standard]

Health unions have urged the government to withdraw the Draft Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill, 2025, saying it duplicates existing laws and violates a 2022 court ruling.

Health Sector Caucus Chair Peterson Wachira said the Ministry of Health failed to consult key stakeholders in drafting the bill, which he warned would worsen confusion in healthcare regulation.

“This bill ignores implementors on the ground and repeats what already exists in several laws,” said Wachira.

He pointed to the Health Act 2017, the Public Health Act, and the Kenya Quality Model for Health as examples of laws that already cover the bill’s proposed content.

Wachira referenced a judgment issued by Judge Wesley Korir in September 2022, which directed the amendment of the Health Act as the proper way to improve quality of care.

He said the ruling offers a more effective and less costly path than creating a new law.

The unions also questioned the bill’s proposal to establish a new oversight agency, arguing it would duplicate the role of the Kenya Health Professionals Oversight Authority (KHPOA), which has not been fully operationalised since its creation in 2017.

“Instead of creating another body, the government should amend and activate KHPOA,” Wachira explained.

They further cited a Cabinet resolution passed in Kakamega in February 2025, which called for merging, dissolving, or declassifying state agencies to reduce spending.

Wachira said introducing another health regulator goes against that resolution.

The unions identified deeper problems affecting healthcare, including underfunding, staff shortages, disrupted services from strikes, poor digital systems, and lack of coordination between national and county governments.

“Too many laws and too little action has defined the state of healthcare,” he noted.

They listed six demands, among them the full implementation of the Health Act 2017, annual hiring of 12,000 health workers, and budget alignment with the Abuja Declaration, which recommends allocating 15 per cent of national budgets to health.

The joint statement was signed by representatives of multiple unions and professional bodies in the health sector.