Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Council (KMPDC) is planning to administer an examination in May this year that will see medicine graduates being registered by the Council as full medical practitioners if they pass the tests.
The examination will also see foreign graduates or those holding foreign qualifications in medicine which are recognized by the Council be approved to undertake an internship training in Kenya.
Candidates (medical graduates) who will pass the Pre- registration examination will be required to apply for Permanent Registration as medical practitioners.
According to the Council’s Circular dated March 29, 2023 signed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. David Kariuki, all the candidates who will be sitting for the Council’s Internship Qualifying and Pre-registration examinations in May 2023 are required to have registered by April 28, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.
“Be advised that No application for May 2023 examination, shall be accepted beyond the above date and time,” stated Dr. Kariuki in the circular.
The Council will first brief the candidates on May 15, 2023 before sitting for a written examinations on May 29, 2023 and Clinical examinations which will take place on May 30, 2023 and May 31, 2023.
The candidates will be required to have undergone a four month clinical rotation at any of the recognized Internship Training Centres, and further be required to have submitted the evidence of the attendance of the clinical rotation before the deadline for registration.
Internship qualifying examination is a written or oral examination or both which determines the eligibility for a foreign trained graduate who hold a degree recognized by the Council to undergo internship training in the country.
A medical and or dental graduate who intends to undertake internship training normally applies to the Council, and once the it is satisfied that the graduate meets the set requirements, they are issued with an internship license with or without conditions on the license. It is an offence to undertake internship training without the internship license.
The successful candidates are also required to submit a copy of their posting letters from the Ministry of Health in order to be issued with an Internship License by the Council.
Foreign trained doctors who possess qualifications equivalent to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) from the University of Nairobi are required to sit Council exams in order to determine their eligibility for either registration or internship training.
However, graduates from the East African Partner States (EAC) who qualify from approved medical and dental schools are exempted from Board exams under EAC Boards/Councils Reciprocal Recognition.
Pre- registration examination on the other hand is a written or oral examination or both which determines the eligibility for registration of a foreign trained student (Kenyan or non – Kenyan), as a practitioner. The examination is administered to graduates upon completion of their internship training.
The examination is divided into two (2): Written and Clinicals, which both add up 100 marks where the pass mark is 50 per cent; with the candidate being mandatorily required to attain 50 per cent in Clinicals in order to be awarded a pass in the entire exam. Candidates are only allowed a maximum of three (3) exam attempts only if they fail.
The Council’s examinations are coming at a time when the Ministry of Health (MOH) posted the first batch of over 800 medical interns to public hospitals countrywide in January this year, in line with the commitment made by the ministry with the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) and the Council of Governors on January 4, 2023.
The 2022 Economic survey report indicated that the total number of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students has increased by 4.3 per cent to 23,164 in the 2021/22 academic year.
The number of undergraduate students increased by 6.5 per cent to 20,280 with that of postgraduate students decreased by 9.6 per cent to 2,884 in 2021/22; while for both undergraduate and post-graduate students, the male students accounted for 57.4 per cent of the total during the review period.
For Health Sciences’ Graduates in Public and Private Universities, the total number of graduates and post-graduates increased to 3,399 in 2021/22, which was as a result of students whose graduation had been delayed from the previous academic year graduating within in 2021/22 academic year. Male graduates accounted for 52.4 per cent of the total graduates in 2021/22 academic year.
In 2020, Kenya had a total of 189,932 health workers with 66 percent being in the public sector and 58 percent, 13 percent and 7 percent being nurses, clinical officers and doctors, respectively.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the prescribed health worker density ratio is determined as 23 doctors, nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people. In Kenya the ratio stands at 13 doctors, nurses, and midwives for every 10,000 people; with the country facing a shortage gap of 3,238 medical officers, with the required number being at least 5,317.
There is also a deficit of 2,313 consultants; 1,070 dentists; 4,614 public health officers; 1,020 pharmacists; 4,167 pharmacy technologists; 3,970 specialist clinical officers and 9,301 general clinical officers with the number expecting to increase yearly with increasing population.
By Roy Hezron
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