Ruai Family Hospital license reinstated, remains suspended as vaccination centre

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) has now reinstated the operating license of Ruai Family Hospital (RFH) hours after revoking it.

KMPDC CEO Daniel Yumbya, in an address on Wednesday after a closed-door meeting with the hospital’s management, said the order to close the facility had also since been vacated.

Mr. Yumbya however noted that the council’s Ethics and Disciplinary committee had found that RFH nurse Ruth Matitika took 144 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and handed them to one Caroline Kinyanjui on Friday, August 27, 2021.

According to the committee, Ms. Kinyanjui then went ahead to use the doses for a vaccination drive in Murang’a on Saturday, August 28, 2021.

The committee also found that the hospital however reported the doses missing on August 29, 2021 at 8:34pm.

Hence, despite vacating the notice of closure of the facility, KMPDC still suspended the Ruai Family Hospital as a vaccination centre.

KMPDC further demanded an audit of the vaccines given to the public within 14 days, and referred the matter to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to probe the actions of Ruth Mutitika and Caroline Kinyanjui.

The council on Tuesday evening announced the decision to revoke RFH’s operating license over alleged violation of COVID-19 vaccination regulations.

KMPDC alleged that the hospital, which had been designated as a COVID-19 vaccination centre, had been diverting vaccines to other unauthorised premises.

“The Council is in receipt of credible information that the Ruai Family Hospital which is designated as a COVID-19 Vaccination Centre has; contravened the rules and regulations governing the COVID-19 deployment; and diverted vaccines meant for use at the said facility under unclear circumstances to other unauthorized premises, and carried out the vaccination exercises in an uncontrolled environment, wherein the quality and efficacy of vaccines cannot be ascertained and thus endangering public safety,” said the council in a statement issued on Tuesday.

“The Council notes that the continued operation of the facility, brings into question the safety of the patients being managed therein.”

The hospital was consequently directed to shut down immediately and organize to transfer all the in-patients to other facilities of their choice within 24 hours.

The management was also directed to appear before the Council’s Disciplinary and Ethics Committee on Wednesday.

The hospital, in a subsequent statement issued later, admitted that one of its nurses who recently resigned was pictured vaccinating people at a political setting in Murang’a.

The said employee served as Health Care Manager for RFH Specialist Hospital and had been directly overseeing the COVID-19 vaccination exercise and was the key custodian of the vaccines.

RFH maintained that the nurse was not sanctioned by the hospital or its leadership.

“Management has since called the staff for her statement. She confirms that she was not under any direct authority to take part in the exercise but did so on her own volition,” read the statement.

“A tally of our Vaccine allocation from Dandora Depot confirms that 160 doses of what was meant for the hospital for public vaccination was used in the exercise… Whatever our staff do on their free time outside work remains governed by the laws of the land. On this particular issue, we consider this a gross misconduct as it involved misappropriation and misuse of what was by extension hospital property.”