Kiambu county executive is preparing to present a new bill in the county assembly to control the proximity of private healthcare units and the public health facilities.
The private healthcare units will include hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and chemists.
Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu says the bill will prohibit setting up of private health facilities within a radius of half a kilometre from public hospitals.
"Some devious staff working at the public health care units are robbing drugs among other hospital paraphernalia and sell them to owners of adjacent private labs and clinics," said Waititu in Kiambu on Wednesday.
He added: "These health personnel are making money at the expense of the patients’ health. Public hospitals are operating at a loss at the same time denying members of the public their rights to quality services."
The irate governor charged that several physicians and experts in the public institutions are gluttonous to the extent of stealing medicine and equipment leaving the patients suffering.
“These clinics and pharmacies are ran by doctors working at the public health facilities and that is why we want to control the distance between the two. Private clinics, labs, as well as chemists, are straining the services offered in the public hospitals,” Waititu added.
Should the law be passed by the county assembly, no privately-owned clinic, lab, or dispensary will be issued with a permit and even a licence to operate within 500 metres from public health institutions.
This comes in as complaints of lack of medicine in many Kiambu health facilities continue to get louder by day.