Clinical officer

A clinical officer (CO) is a gazetted officer who is qualified and licensed to practice medicine.

In Kenya the basic training for clinical officers starts after high school and takes four or five years ending on successful completion of a one-year internship in a teaching hospital and registration at the Clinical Officers Council where annual practice licenses are issued. This is followed by a three-year clinical apprenticeship under a senior clinical officer or a senior medical officer which must be completed and documented in the form of employment, resignation and recommendation letters before approval of practising certificates and Master Facility List numbers for their own private practices or before promotion from the entry level training grade for those who remain employed. A further two-year higher diploma training which is equivalent to a bachelor's degree in a medical specialty is undertaken by those who wish to leave general practice and specialize in one branch of medicine such as paediatrics, orthopaedics or psychiatry. Unique Master Facility List numbers are generated from a national WHO-recommended database at the Ministry of Health which receives and tracks health workload, performance and disease surveillance data from all public and private health facilities in the 47 counties. Clinical officers also run private practices using a license issued to them by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council. Career options for clinical officers include general practice, specialty practice, health administration, community health and postgraduate training and research in the government or the private sector. Many clinical officers in the private sector are government contractors and subcontractors who provide primary care and hospital services to the public in their own private clinics or in public hospitals through contracts with the national government, county governments or other government entities such as the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). Kenya has approximately 25,000 registered clinical officers for its 55 million people.