MOH User guide to discipline process in public health sector 2016

The overall mission of the health sector in Kenya is to promote and provide quality, curative, preventive, promotive, rehabilitative and palliative health care services to all Kenyans. Achieving the mission and the constitutional provision of the right to the highest attainable standard of health requires the health workers to observe the values and principles of public service. These amongst others include high standards of professional ethics; responsive, prompt, effective, impartial and equitable provision of services and efficient and economic use of resources in provision of health services.

Achieving the right to health and the sector mission also requires a disciplined health workforce. In that respect disciplinary control is an integral part in the management of human resource in the sector. It is intended to help and encourage health workers achieve and maintain professional ethics, standards of conduct, contribute to improved performance and productivity. Healthcare workers have an obligation to always follow specific established behaviour as stipulated in their contract of employment, public service code of ethics and the professional councils/ boards code of conduct.

The administration of disciplinary control over public officers is vested in the Public Service Commission under Article 234 (2) (b), of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. To ensure disciplinary control is maintained consistently in the public service, the commission has delegated disciplinary powers to Authorized Officers as per the Public Service Commission regulations and instructions issued to the service from time to time allowing for consideration and finalization of cases at the Ministry/State Department level and County Governments. Thus in the health sector, when an employee’s performance or behaviour is unsatisfactory, corrective action must be taken. Corrective action will follow the process of progressive discipline when the situation is a result of inappropriate behavior or unsatisfactory performance.

However, disciplinary action should not be viewed as punishment, but as a method of correcting a problem. All disciplinary actions inflicted on an employee in the health sector shall be within the law and the Public Service Commission Regulations. Accurate evidence shall be the foundation of fairness in discipline cases. Proactive administration of disciplinary control also bestows the supervisor with the responsibility to have regular meetings with employees to explain workplace rules and code of conduct. The supervisor must therefore inform an employee of the standards of particular conduct that apply in the workplace.