NHIF faults medics board over ghost clinics

Kenya's national health insurance provider has accused the Medical Practitioners and Dentist Board’s (MPDB) of sleeping on the job with regard to the registration of health centres.

Senior managers of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) say the board should have barred unregistered clinics from operating.

“If the board is aware that the facilities are not registered, it is their duty to ensure that they do not operate,” a statement by George Midiwo, the General Manager for Benefits and Quality said.

The board had claimed on Tuesday that 77 clinics allowed into the fund’s list of service providers were did not exist.

“The accredited facilities do actually exist, are registered by the various statutory bodies and have the capacity to offer services to members of the medical scheme,” Mr Midiwo said.

Some of the clinics alleged to “ghosts” included St Luke’s Mission Hospital (Kilifi), St Joseph (Trans Mara) and Sololo Mission Hospital (Marsabit).

Others were Lumumba Health Centre in Kisumu and Kipchimchim Mission Hospital in Kericho.

The 77 were part of a list of over 700 clinics the fund published last month following the cancellation of contracts with Meridian and Clinix providers. The two were alleged to have been paid millions of shillings for ghost outlets.

(Read: Meridian, Clinix suspension leaves workers exposed)

The board, however, insists that the facilities’ do not appear in its database.

“One of the requirements for selecting clinics was that they should be credited by our board. We cannot vouch for the existence, let alone the competence of the clinics in question,” said Mr Daniel Yumbya, the MPDB chief executive.

Health providers are required to submit to the board annual licences of practice, the names, qualifications of and contacts of their personnel among others for accreditation.

The director of Medical Services has since written to the fund requesting accreditation details of the healthcare providers highlighted.