The Social Health Authority (SHA) has announced a major disruption of its digital services, affecting hospital pre-authorisation processes across Kenya.
The outage began on Sunday, March 1, 2026, and has left many contracted healthcare facilities unable to process patient approvals efficiently. Patients seeking medical treatment are experiencing delays as hospitals struggle to manage authorisations manually.
This disruption has caused concerns for both patients and healthcare providers who rely on the digital platform for fast and accurate service delivery.
In a statement on Monday, March 2, SHA CEO Dr Mercy Mwang’ang’i confirmed the system downtime. She explained that the Digital Health Agency, which provides the technological infrastructure for SHA operations, is experiencing a major incident. “This is to formally notify you of a service interruption and downtime affecting the Digital Health Agency’s services, which are critical to SHA operations.
We have received notification from our service provider indicating a major incident leading to significant system unavailability,” Dr Mwang’ang’i stated.
The SHA relies on the Digital Health Agency’s platforms to manage claims, verify patient details, and authorise pre-treatment services in real time. Hospitals use this system to ensure that patients receive timely approvals for surgeries, specialised tests, and other medical procedures.
The sudden unavailability of these services has forced some facilities to halt or delay certain procedures until the system is restored. This has created operational challenges in both public and private hospitals across the country.
Healthcare providers are concerned about the impact on patient care, particularly for critical cases that require urgent authorisation. Some hospitals have resorted to manual verification processes, but this is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Patients have also expressed frustration, as delays in obtaining pre-authorisation may affect the scheduling of treatment and access to essential healthcare services.
Dr Mwang’ang’i said SHA is closely monitoring the situation and is in constant communication with the Digital Health Agency to resolve the incident. “We are working closely with our service provider to ensure that the systems are restored as quickly as possible.
We are aware of the impact this has on hospitals and patients, and every effort is being made to mitigate the effects of this outage,” she explained.
The disruption underscores the dependency of Kenya’s health sector on digital systems to manage operations efficiently. SHA’s nationwide platform connects thousands of hospitals and healthcare providers, streamlining processes that were previously handled manually.
Experts note that prolonged outages can affect healthcare delivery, financial management, and patient trust in the system.
The agency has assured hospitals and patients that updates will be provided regularly, and a full report will follow once the systems are fully restored. Meanwhile, healthcare facilities are urged to document all manual authorisations during the outage to ensure smooth reconciliation once the digital platforms are back online.
This incident highlights the importance of digital resilience and the need for contingency measures to prevent disruption of essential healthcare services. SHA and the Digital Health Agency are expected to implement corrective actions and strengthen their systems to avoid future downtime.
