Director-General for Health Dr. Patrick Amoth speaks during the inaugural National Science Research Translation Congress organised by The Star at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi on October 22, 2025./LEAH MUKANGAI
Kenya’s public hospitals will soon be ranked based on the quality of services they provide, in a new government plan aimed at improving accountability and patient outcomes.
Director-General for Health Dr. Patrick Amoth said the rankings will be guided by the proposed Quality Health Care and Patient Safety Bill, which has been approved by Cabinet and is now before the Senate.
“Once passed into law, we will have a system for how hospitals are run,” he said. “In the public health sector, we sometimes claim to offer services beyond our capacity. This Bill will help us improve continuously and ensure Kenyans receive the highest quality of care.”
Amoth spoke on Wednesday, October 22, during the inaugural National Science Research Translation Congress organised by The Star at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi.
He stressed that the ranking initiative will not be punitive but will serve as a continuous quality improvement tool to help facilities benchmark and adopt best practices.
The Bill proposes clear performance standards based on human resources, equipment, and infrastructure—areas where many public hospitals struggle.
“It is not about punishment,” Amoth said.
“It is about measuring ourselves, identifying gaps, and improving so that Kenyans get the quality of health services guaranteed by the Constitution.”
The ranking system is part of a broader Ministry of Health plan to use real-time data to enhance service delivery. Digital dashboards are being developed to track key indicators such as patient satisfaction, mortality rates, and the availability of essential medicines.
Amoth said the ministry is working with universities and research institutions to strengthen data analytics capacity and ensure policies are informed by evidence.
“We base our decisions on data. That’s why we are partnering with institutions like the University of Nairobi’s Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis,” he said.
He added that the quality rankings will bring greater transparency to a sector often plagued by uneven standards between urban and rural hospitals.
The ministry is also collaborating with KEMRI and regional partners to create innovation ecosystems that turn research into practical health improvements.
“We want hospitals to run like performance-based institutions,” Amoth said. “If a facility excels in orthopedic outcomes, we should know that — and if another struggles, we should help it improve.”
He noted that the long-term goal is for data, research, and innovation to drive hospital management and funding.
“This is how we move from data to decision, from evidence to action, and from innovation to impact,” Amoth said.
The Quality Health Care and Patient Safety Bill 2025 forms part of wider reforms under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, which seeks to enhance efficiency and accountability across public service.