Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill approved by Cabinet despite concerns by unions
comes weeks after unions representing workers in the health sector rejected it and instead called for the implementation of the Health Care Act 2017
The Cabinet has approved the Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill 2025.
A media dispatch issued after a meeting chaired by President William Ruto at State House, Nairobi on Tuesday said the Bill is a response to “entrenched impunity and malpractices” that have long compromised healthcare delivery and undermined public trust.
The proposed law seeks to establish an independent authority mandated to regulate, license, and inspect all health facilities; enforce national standards of care; safeguard patient rights; and introduce a nationwide quality rating system to enhance transparency and accountability. It also includes provisions for penalties and compensation of up to Sh50 million in cases of gross negligence.
“The Bill seeks to eliminate systemic fraud, regulatory loopholes, and conflicts of interest that have long undermined healthcare delivery and public trust. It responds to glaring gaps that have allowed unqualified and fraudulent health facilities to be licensed and to operate,” the Cabinet dispatch read in part.
“This lack of clear standards, coupled with weak oversight and collusion among facilities, regulators, and practitioners, has left patients vulnerable and eroded accountability,” it added.
The Cabinet noted that many of the health sector’s failures are often facilitated through collusion among regulators, facilities, and practitioners.
The Bill will introduce quality improvement plans at the facility level, enforces patient rights, and set clear standards for emergency medical services.
It is also expected to tackle the root causes of health sector corruption, protect patients, and deliver safe, effective, and high-standard healthcare, aligned with the government’s universal health coverage goals.
The sweeping legislative proposal further aims at reforming the health sector by eliminating systemic corruption, unqualified facilities, and regulatory failure.
It now moves to Parliament for debate and potential enactment.
However, its approval by Cabinet comes weeks after unions representing workers in the health sector rejected it and instead called for the implementation of the Health Care Act 2017.
The caucus of 19 unions, representing clinical officers; public health officers; laboratory technicians and technologists; and nutritionists, among others, stated that endless legislation and parastatals cannot solve the problems in the health sector, but proper allocation by the National Treasury and implementation of already existing Acts.
According to the unions, 80 percent of the quality of the new Bill is already addressed in existing legislation and policies within the Ministry of Health.
“We note that 80 per cent of the quality of the Health Care and Patient Safety Bill 2025 are already provided for in other legislations and policies including the Health Act 2017, the National Policy on Patients Safety, Health Worker Safety and Quality Care, Public Health Act, Clinical Officers Act, Nurses Act among others,” Kenya Union of Clinical Officers national chairperson Peterson Wachira stated.
Wachira pointed out the 2022 ruling by Justice Wesley Korir that the Health Act 2017 provides a shorter and cost-effective route to making the health care sector better.
