KMPDC sets 90-day waiting period for appeals after hospital closures or downgrades in new directive

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) has issued new guidelines on how health facilities should appeal decisions related to closures, partial shutdowns, or downgrades.

In a notice released on August 5, KMPDC clarified that such appeals will only be considered 90 days after the action has been taken. The council explained that the three-month period is meant to give affected facilities enough time to address the issues that led to the sanctions.

KMPDC CEO David Kariuki noted that the council had received a growing number of inquiries from facility owners and stakeholders over classification levels and bed capacities.

“We wish to clarify the following: Appeals arising from the closure, partial closure or downgrade of a health facility shall only be addressed 90 days after the change in status to allow the affected facility to comprehensively address all identified gaps,” read part of the statement.

KMPDC emphasised that closures or downgrades significantly affect the operations of other government agencies. Therefore, facilities must continue operating strictly within their licensed scope to prevent disruption of essential services within the health system.

The council also reminded all health facilities seeking to revise their bed capacities to submit formal inspection requests to its compliance email by August 8.

“A verification process is currently ongoing to confirm the status of facilities based on these requests,” the notice added. “All applications are being processed in the order they were received. Once a request has been submitted, applicants are advised to exercise patience as their matter is scheduled and addressed.”

This directive follows a major enforcement action in June, where KMPDC shut down 728 health facilities across Kenya for failing to meet compliance requirements. Of these, 394 were located in Nairobi alone.

The move was part of a nationwide crackdown aimed at enforcing the Inspections and Licensing Rules, 2022, to boost patient safety and uphold healthcare quality.

On July 3, President William Ruto disclosed that more than 1,000 health facilities had been closed for fraudulent activity related to the Social Health Authority (SHA).