Cabinet endorses Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill, 2025

President William Ruto chairs a Cabinet meeting on July 29, 2025/PCS

The recently unveiled Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Bill, 2025, which seeks to introduce reforms in the country’s healthcare system, has received the Cabinet approval.

The Bill is a key component of broad legislative reforms aimed at strengthening Universal Health Coverage (UHC) under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation.

The proposed legislation marks a major step toward tackling systemic failures, entrenched malpractice, and regulatory weaknesses that have long plagued the health sector.

According to a Cabinet brief, the Bill aims to eliminate widespread fraud, close regulatory loopholes, and end conflicts of interest that have allowed unqualified and unregulated facilities to operate with impunity.

These failures, the Cabinet noted, have compromised patient safety and eroded public trust.

"The lack of clear standards, coupled with weak oversight and collusion among health facilities, regulators, and practitioners, has left patients vulnerable and the system largely unaccountable," the Cabinet observed.

The Bill proposes a unified quality assurance framework and introduces mandatory licensing, registration, and accreditation requirements for all healthcare providers, including hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, and ambulance services.

Central to the reforms is the establishment of a powerful, independent Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety Authority, which will be responsible for enforcing national care standards, monitoring healthcare performance, and overseeing the implementation of quality improvement initiatives at the facility level.

The legislation also aims to protect patients’ rights by codifying minimum service standards and setting out clear protocols for emergency medical services.

The government sees this as a foundational move toward achieving universal health coverage while ensuring that services are both safe and effective.

By addressing the root causes of corruption and inefficiency in the health system, the government hopes the Bill will usher in a new era of transparency, accountability, and patient-centered care.

The Bill was first introduced during a stakeholder consultative forum chaired by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale in Nairobi mid last month.

Its approval now paves the way for its tabling in parliament.

Duale noted that it aligns with five core UHC pillars already underway.

These are a fully publicly financed primary healthcare system; integration of ICT and telemedicine, protection of health funds through collaboration with the National Treasury and county governments; creation of an Emergency Medical Treatment Fund and provision of Social Health Insurance for all.

The Bill further proposes establishing a unified Healthcare Tribunal to resolve disputes involving patients, healthcare professionals, and providers.

This move seeks to improve access to justice, strengthen accountability, and regulate emerging services, such as medical aesthetic procedures, under the same quality and safety standards as traditional healthcare.