A proposed Bill sponsored by National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale Medics makes it criminal for medics to turn away patients in need of emergency treatment.

According to the Health Bill 2015, any doctor, nurse or medical practitioner who fails to provide emergency medical treatment commits an offence and will be liable on conviction to a fine of Sh1 million or a 12 month imprisonment while the health facility whose owner or staff commits the offence will be liable to a fine not exceeding sh 3 million.

“Every person has the right to emergency medical treatment. No person shall be denied emergency treatment by the health service provider of first contact,” the Bill reads in part.

The Bill comes in the wake of the sad case surrounding Alex Madaga, the hit and run victim who died after he was forced to be contained in an ambulance for 18 hours after private hospitals refused to admit him in the ICU while Kenyatta hospital could not take him in as all beds were occupied.

Section 3 of the constitution provides that no person shall be dinied acess to emergency treatment.

The Health Bill, which was tabled in the National Assembly in September this year, also seeks to legalize organ donation in Kenya.

If passed, the Bill will allow a person, who is competent to make a will; to donate his or her body or any specified tissue to a person or institution of his choice after death