Medical Colleges Breaching Capacity Limits Face Crackdown, Says CS Duale.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has sounded a warning to rogue medical training institutions, accusing them of putting profit before professionalism.
While addressing the annual delegates’ conference of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) in Mombasa, Duale declared that the Ministry of Health would act firmly against unregulated institutions that exceed their licensed student capacity.
Duale revealed that some colleges are admitting up to four times their approved number of students, severely straining the system meant to support medical internships.
The CS emphasized that such commercial motives undermine the quality of healthcare education and disrupt the internship placements essential for new doctors.
The persistent issue of medical intern placements, which previously sparked a nearly two-month-long strike, was a central topic at the KMPDU event. Duale attributed much of this crisis to unchecked admission practices by training institutions. He insisted that regulating these institutions is crucial to maintaining training standards and ensuring that internship placements align with the government’s budgetary allocations.
He urged the national parliament to rely on accurate projections when budgeting for healthcare workforce needs, stressing the inconsistency in training numbers—from 200 doctors one year to 3,000 the next—as unsustainable. According to him, only institutions with adequate training facilities and capacity should be allowed to operate.
The Ministry of Health is implementing strategies to guarantee uninterrupted healthcare access for all civil servants, including health workers, through the Social Health Authority. Duale noted that deductions for healthcare contributions at both national and county levels would henceforth be made at the source to prevent service delays.
Additionally, Duale disclosed that 1,035 medical officer interns, 83 dental officer interns, and 503 pharmacy interns had already been selected through balloting and are expected to begin their rotations in July 2025. This move aims to alleviate the backlog caused by previous systemic delays.
Although the CS acknowledged that 18 counties had approved and declared strike actions, he chose to delay announcing the industrial action out of respect for the presence of governors and delegates at the conference. He confirmed that the ministry would hold off on issuing the strike communication for two more weeks, underlining his commitment to dialogue and respect for stakeholders.
Medical Colleges Breaching Capacity Limits Face Crackdown, Says CS Duale.
