For many Kenyans, accessing medical care traditionally involved long journeys and extended waits at hospitals or health centres. This has often discouraged timely treatment, especially for common illnesses. However, a new healthcare delivery approach is gaining momentum nationwide: integrating primary care services directly into retail pharmacies.

Bringing Healthcare Closer to Communities

The pharmacy-clinic model enables patients to consult clinicians, undergo basic diagnostic tests, receive treatment, and obtain prescribed medication all within a single visit to a pharmacy. This approach transforms pharmacies from mere medicine dispensaries into accessible first points of contact within the healthcare system.

Health economist Joshua Nyakundi highlights the advantage of this model, stating that it leverages locations where people already frequent, thus reducing travel and waiting times. By embedding clinicians in pharmacies, patients save on transport costs and avoid long queues, encouraging earlier diagnosis and routine follow-ups. This can help reduce unnecessary hospital visits and allow referral hospitals to concentrate on specialised cases.

Addressing Kenya's Healthcare Capacity Challenges

Kenya faces a shortage of healthcare professionals, with approximately one doctor per 6,000 people—far below the World Health Organisation's recommended ratio of one per 1,000. This disparity is more pronounced in rural areas, where only about six percent of doctors practise, leaving millions with limited access to basic care.

Public hospital bed capacity has also declined recently, even as the population grows. These challenges have encouraged healthcare providers, insurers, and pharmacy chains to adopt the pharmacy-clinic model as a more efficient way to meet demand.

Key Players Expanding Pharmacy-Clinic Services

  • TIBU Health recently expanded its Minute Clinics within Goodlife Pharmacy branches, offering consultations, chronic disease management, vaccinations, screenings, lab services, referrals, and telemedicine options. Since restructuring, TIBU has become profitable and has served over 45,000 diagnoses and administered more than 2,500 vaccines.
  • Old Mutual Health, in partnership with Halton and Goodlife Pharmacies, launched Pharmacy First to provide members with no-cost consultations and treatments within pharmacies.
  • Livia Health connects pharmacies, clinicians, laboratories, insurers, and patients through its ExpressHub platform, enabling private consultations and coordinated outpatient care across a network of over 400 pharmacies and 2,000 doctors.

Historical Roots and Future Outlook

Pharmacy-clinic models are not entirely new in Kenya. Malibu Pharmacy began integrating consultation services in the 1990s, while Child and Family Wellness (CFW) Shops pioneered combining licensed medicine outlets with clinical services in underserved areas as early as 1997. These initiatives laid the groundwork for the current expansion of integrated primary healthcare within pharmacies.

As Kenya continues to grapple with healthcare workforce shortages and facility constraints, the pharmacy-clinic model presents a scalable, patient-centred solution that improves access, reduces costs, and strengthens the primary care system.