Governors clash with KMPDC over mandatory ambulance registration

A standoff is brewing between the Council of Governors (CoG) and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) over a directive requiring all ambulances and emergency medical personnel to be registered by Monday, September 15.

The directive by KMPDC demands that all ambulances, paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), ambulance operators, and other pre-hospital care providers register with the council.

Non-compliance, KMPDC warns, would attract sanctions, including prohibition from operating.

But CoG Chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi has criticized the move, accusing the Ministry of Health and its agencies of bypassing agreed consultations with counties on the management of ambulance and emergency services.

Governors argue the directive undermines devolution and duplicates roles already vested in county governments under the 2010 Constitution.

Abdullahi, in a letter to governors dated September 9, has advised county governments to disregard the public notice.

“The KMPDC Act does not confer any functions to any level of government. Accordingly, the threatened consequences of non-compliance with the notice are of no effect to counties performing their constitutional mandates,” he says.

“Article 186 and Part 2 of the Fourth Schedule expressly assign ambulance services to County Governments. Counties have invested heavily in ambulance services over the past 12 years and established functional referral systems.”

County officials also raised concerns about what they described as “conflicts of mandate” between national agencies and counties, warning that parallel systems could create operational and financial inefficiencies.

Further, Abdullahi says health executives from the counties rejected KMPDC’s draft standards on emergency medical care during a September 5 meeting in Mombasa, insisting that any new framework must be aligned with county-managed ambulance dispatch systems.

“The Ministry of Health and its semi-autonomous institutions have reneged on resolutions made towards cooperation and consultation. We therefore advise county governments to disregard the public notice and treat it with the contempt it deserves,” the CoG chair says.