Third from left: Dr. Amit Thakker the board Chairperson Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority (KHPOA) and other board members addressing the press in Nairobi today. Photo: Benard Mulwa
By Benard Mulwa
Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority (KHPOA) a State agency working to strengthen the health sector in Kenya has today announced plans aimed to toughen the ailing health sector.
Led by the board Chairperson Dr. Amit Thakker, the board will unveil structures and systems of health on 15Th April this year. The agency which was established in 2022 is composed of the Chairperson, the Principle Secretary Ministry of Health, The Director General of health, The Attorney General, two representatives by the health regulatory boards established under the act of Parliament which is the Nursing Council and the Clinical Officers, the Council of governors, Health Professions Association and a one representative from the Private Sector Mr. Elyas Sheikh Abdinoor, a renowned entrepreneur who is appointed by the Cabinet Secretary, the Consumer Rights body and the Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jackson Kioko.
The agency has seven mandate and legal functions which makes it a strong entity. The first is to maintain a duplicate registrar of all the professions working within the National and Country heath systems to bring all the registrar from all the different regulatory bodies together under one single register know as master health register.
The second function is to promote and regulate intra profession liaison between statutory regulatory bodies so as all to be working in harmony. The third function of the body is to coordinate joint inspections with all regulatory bodies.
The fourth function is to receive and facilitate resolutions of complaints from patients, aggrieved parties and regulatory bodies. “We have introduced a complete transparent patient grievance form under KMPDC which is available Online”, Dr. Amit Thakker said this is for any member of public who has not received good care by any health care profession to lodge their complains.
The fifth function is to monitor the execution of respective mandates and functions of regulatory bodies recognized under the Act of Parliament. “There are eleven regulatory bodies currently existing, we are going to help monitor and execute the executions of their mandate, our function is to help them perform even better” Dr. Thakker the board Chairperson told journalists.
The six function is to arbitrate disputes between statutory regulatory bodies and the last mandate is to ensure necessary standards for health professions are not compromised by the regulatory bodies.
The board is newly formed in 2022
In the recent past, Opticians in Kenya did not have an official paper to enable them open an optical outlet that will continue to see and treat the refractory process of Kenya but now all the opticians are licensed. Bio-medical engineers, emergence medical technicians, morticians, speech therapists, audiologists, are all now been registered after being vetted by this Board which was formed in 2022.