The Kenya Medical Association (KMA) has called for establishment of health service commission to solve Human Resources for Health concerns across the country.
According to KMA, a Presidential Task Force was constituted to handle HRH problems with the task force recommending establishment of health service commission as part of the Return-to-Work Formula (RTWF) following the 56-day nationwide doctors strike in 2024.
“KMA advises strengthening of existing regulatory bodies and establishing a Health service Commission,” said Dr. Diana Marion the Secretary General of KMA.
According to KMA various constitutional bodies have already adopted the task force’s report and have since been set up. The Health Human Resource Advisory Council (KHHRAC) is one of the bodies that reviews policies and establishes uniform norms and standards for posting interns, inter-county transfers of healthcare professionals, welfare and service schemes for health professionals, specialist management and rotation, and the maintenance of a master register for all health practitioners in the counties.
“The role of KHHRAC is to standardize and oversee various HRH functions is advisory and policy review, which may not fully address systemic HRH challenges,”
The Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority (KHPOA) is another body that takes on the mandate. It maintains a duplicate register of all health professionals, promotes and regulates inter-professional liaison, coordinates joint inspections, resolves complaints from patients and regulatory bodies, monitors regulatory body mandate execution, arbitrates disputes among regulatory bodies, and ensures that necessary standards for health professionals are met.
“Several recommendations addressing HRH challenges have already been made by other task forces and reports, yet remain unimplemented,”
The establishment of a Health Service Commission (HSC) was suggested in the National Assembly report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the review of the constitution in 2004–2010, as per the previous recommendations to address the crisis. The HSC was later to be reinstated through an Act of Parliament.
Another recommendation was the 2012 Musyimi Task Force Report where the task force recommended the establishment of an HSC to tackle HRH issues. It noted the need to delink the Ministry of Health (MoH) from service delivery, allowing it to focus on policy formulation, standards, guidelines, and regulations.
The Task Force on Training of Medical Specialists had previously issued suggestions about medical training and deployment problems, according to the Ministry of Health Report of 2019.
Kenya’s Health Labour Market Analysis for 2023 also included a thorough analysis with the data required for policy interventions to address the problems associated with human resources for health.
The 18 October 2023 Kericho Declaration on Human Resources for Health states that a 17-point plan for enhancing HRH in Kenya under the direction of KHHRAC was developed through a nationwide dialogue.
“With the Ministry of Health is currently developing a Human Resources for Health Policy, KMA supports the creation of a constitutional Health Service Commission (HSC) to oversee HRH as a strategic national resource and create guidelines for health workers’ hiring, training, compensation, and conduct.”
In order to ensure a fair distribution of health workers throughout the nation, the HCS will also register all health workers, recruit and deploy health workers within the public service based on needs derived from norms and standards, ensure health workers abide by a code of conduct and discipline, and rationalize and standardize remuneration and other terms of service.
The draft constitution included the Health Service Commission until the very end, as part of a plan to actually establish one. Additionally, a 2012 draft HSC bill was revised in 2018.
Additionally, the proposal notes that KMPDU made suggestions for constitutional modifications on May 3, 2020, with the goal of creating an HSC.
The BBI Report, in paragraph 164, advocates for the transfer of human resources to an HSC, while maintaining health as a devolved role. Additionally, on June 21, 2020, the KMA suggested to the BBI technical committee the establishment of a constitutional HSC.
The national government should oversee the education, employment, and compensation of specialists, according to the 2018 task group on medical specialist training recommendations.
The creation of an HSC was suggested by the 2012 Task Force on Strengthening Health Service Delivery as a means of severing the Ministries of Health from service delivery.
“The Kenya Medical Association remains committed to upholding the welfare of doctors and the highest standards of healthcare for all Kenyans,”
