Kenyans will now be required to leave their Identification cards, names, and vehicle registration details when dropping patients at national referral hospitals, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale says.

Speaking at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Duale said the move aims at enhancing patient traceability and accountability in public health facilities. Adding that patient traceability is now mandatory across all public health institutions.

“We will ask every person, including the police, who brings a sick patient to do as a favour; it is no longer a favour, it is a right. If you bring a patient to the emergency and casualty, your vehicle, ID card, and your name must remain with us. We must have some sort of traceability of the patients that come to our hospital,” said Duale on Monday, July 28.

According to the CS, the move follows a report that shows that 443 patients are long-stay or abandoned in the hospitals.

“Our referral hospital reports 443 long stay and abandoned patients, 211 are abandoned by next of kin, and 232 have been discharged but are unable to leave because of social or financial barriers to us. This is not only a logistical issue, but it is a national moral dilemma.”

He further ordered an immediate audit of emergency response systems in all national referral hospitals, as the government intensifies its crackdown on patient neglect and hospital mismanagement.

The audits, he says, must be followed by immediate corrective action, including expanded CCTV coverage and the standardisation of emergency security procedures.

“I have directed all national referral hospitals to immediately conduct an audit of their emergency response system, audit of security protocols, patient monitoring and profiling, and their operation, and they must be followed with very corrective action.”

“We are upgrading our hospital infrastructure across the board by expanding the CCTV coverage,” he said.

Duale’s remarks come in the wake of a shocking incident at KNH involving a murder within the hospital and a delayed treatment of a 17-month-old baby, who died despite having undergone surgery at the same facility just weeks earlier.

Duale termed the events unacceptable, stressing that accountability will be paramount.

“What happened at Kenyatta is unacceptable. Where negligence is found, action will be taken. We will no longer allow bureaucracy to shield failure.”