Patients’ safety at risk over poorly trained doctors, report shows

Kenyans are at the centre of grave safety concerns after a report revealed that inadequately skilled doctors were being left to treat ill patients.

According to the report titled ‘Characterising Kenyan hospitals’ suitability for medical officer internship training’, major gaps exist in staffing, equipment and service availability of Kenya internship hospitals.

The report that analysed 61 out of all 74 Kenyan hospitals that provide internship training for medical doctors, states that Level 4 hospitals (equivalent to district hospitals) are more likely to have a lower capacity index, leading to low quality of care.

Comparing against the minimum requirement outlined in the national guidelines for medical officer interns, the report filtered and identified 166 indicators from the KHFA survey questionnaire and grouped them into 12 domains.

“Hospitals have moderate capacity (over 60 per cent) for most of the general domains, although there is huge variation between hospitals and only 29 out of 61 hospitals have five or more specialists assigned, employed, seconded or part-time-as required by the national guideline,” stated the report which was published by the British Medical Journal.

Quality and safety score was low across all hospitals with an average score of 40 per cent.

As for major specialties, all hospitals have a good capacity for surgery and obstetrics-gynaecology, while mental health was poorest in comparison.

The report revealed that Level 5 and 6 facilities (provincial and national hospitals) have higher capacity scores in all domains when compared with level 4 hospitals (equivalent to district hospitals).

Internship in the health sector in Kenya is recognized as compulsory experiential learning, where graduates build upon previously acquired knowledge and experiences by working within a professional work setting.

All hospitals that offer internships are required to fulfil the minimum requirements outlined in the Kenyan National Guidelines for Internship Training of Medical and Dental Officer Interns and the National Guidelines and Log Book for Medical Officer Interns.

Each centre should have minimum of five medical specialists, covering paediatrics and child health, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology and family medicine.