Registration and Licensing of Health Facilities
This domain tests KMPDC's facility-licensing function: how private hospitals, clinics and dental facilities are registered, inspected and renewed. The exam focuses on the difference between a business permit and a professional facility licence, the Kenya health-facility levels, and the standards an inspector applies.
The licensing principle
A facility licence is premises-specific and service-specific. It is not transferable to a new location or owner without notifying the Council. KMPDC licenses private medical and dental facilities; pharmacies are licensed by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and laboratories by KMLTTB, so a clinic offering those services needs the relevant additional licences.
Core requirements
- Suitable premises with consulting, treatment and, where relevant, procedure rooms.
- Staff holding valid KMPDC registration and APLs, in adequate numbers for the services offered.
- Functioning equipment, sterilisation and infection prevention and control arrangements.
- Safe medical-waste segregation, storage and disposal through approved arrangements.
- Medical records, referral pathways, emergency preparedness, fire safety and utilities.
- Compliance with the facility level declared: Level 1 community, Level 2 dispensary/clinic, Level 3 health centre, Level 4 primary hospital, Level 5 secondary, Level 6 tertiary.
Worked example
A proprietor converts a residential house into a five-bed clinic. Inspection finds no fire exit, no autoclave, no waste-disposal contract and one doctor with an expired APL. The Council defers the licence. Reasoning: premises suitability, sterilisation, waste management and valid practitioner licensing are mandatory; a county single business permit does not cure these defects.
Traps
Treating a county business permit as a KMPDC facility licence; assuming a licence covers a new branch; ignoring expired staff APLs; failing to report change of ownership; and advertising services for which the facility is not licensed.