Doctors and medical staff could soon fork out Sh1 million fine or face two years in prison if they willfully or negligently cause harm to a patient should a new bill become law.
The National Assembly’s Health committee is pushing for the passage of the Health (Amendment) Bill, 2024 that seeks to provide for the establishment, governance and management of Teaching, Referral and Research Facilities.
Medical negligence occurs when medical care providers fail to fulfil their professional obligations to the patients. It includes improper administration of medication, misdiagnosis, failure to adequately monitor a patient, improper use of medical devices, and botched surgical procedures among others.
“A person, staff or agent of the facility who, by any act or omission done or committed in the performance of his or her functions under this Act through negligence, causes any harm to any patient, commits an offence and shall upon conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding one million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both,” the Bill states.
The proposed law will also punish medical professionals who release confidential information about a patient.
“A person, staff or agent of the facility who releases confidential information, publishes or discloses to an unauthorised person, any document, communication or information which has come to his or her knowledge in the course of performing his or her duties, commits an offence and shall upon conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding one million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both," the Bill says.
The same punishment will also apply to medics and facilities that commit theft of intellectual property.
The Bill, sponsored by the Health Committee chairperson Robert Pukose, defines a facility as national referral facilities, specialised facilities, level 5 secondary facilities, level 6 tertiary facilities, centres of excellence, and any other categories as the Cabinet Secretary may specify.
Currently, the Kenya Medical Practitioners Dentist Union (KPDDU) only withdraws practicing licences for rogue medical staff.
The Bill comes in the wake of increased cases of medical negligence involving doctors and clinical officers.
KMPDU said the suspect, who was released on a bond of Sh500,000 with one surety of a similar amount, was not a medical doctor but a clinical officer who lacked the qualifications to handle dialysis procedures.
The body said dialysis nurses and renal physicians are the only ones allowed in dialysis centres and not medical officers.
In 2021, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) was fined Sh200,000 after the family of a patient who died at the facility as a result of negligence eight years earlier won a case against the facility. This was after Justice Joseph Sergon dismissed an appeal by KNH, which sought to overturn the amount arguing that it was excessive.
The judge said senior resident magistrate Peter Muholi, who awarded the family of Joseph Maina King’ori the amount, did not breach any principle when he settled on the amount.
In November 2022, the High Court sentenced quack doctor Mugo wa Wairimu to 29 years and six months in prison for administering drugs to clients in order to commit sexual offenses against them and operating an illegal clinic.
