How patient support programmes work in Kenya (and how they differ from patient support groups)

In Kenya “patient support” can mean a support group or a sponsor-funded programme. This piece is about the programme.

What is the difference between a patient support programme and a patient support group?

A patient support group is made up of people living with the same condition who meet, in person or online, to share experience and encouragement. A hospital, a charity or the members themselves usually run it, anyone with the condition can join, and it is not tied to a particular medicine.

A patient support programme (PSP), sometimes called a patient assistance programme (PAP), is a service. The sponsor, the company that makes a medicine, funds it for patients who have been prescribed that medicine. Nurses and pharmacists staff it, patients join by referral, and the work is practical: paperwork, funding, supply, follow-up and safety reporting.

Who pays for a patient support programme?

The sponsor pays for the programme, and its services are free to the patient. Nobody from InsightsIQ will ever ask a patient for money.

The medicine is paid for first from whatever cover the patient has: the Social Health Authority (SHA), a private insurer or an employer scheme. Where the sponsor offers affordability support, the programme applies it to the balance.

How does a patient join?

Through the treating doctor, who prescribes the medicine and refers the patient. A patient who is struggling to start or continue a medicine should ask their doctor whether a programme exists for it.

A programme nurse then calls the patient, explains the programme and records consent under the Data Protection Act 2019. A patient can leave at any time, and leaving never affects their medical care.

What happens between the prescription and the first dose?

The programme checks cover, submits the application and, once it is approved, arranges supply through a partner pharmacy close to the patient. In our experience this is where patients are most often lost, because every step is a reason to give up.

In InsightsIQ’s programmes the median time from application to approval is the same day, and from prescription to first dose four days. The piece on the first 48 hours explains why the time to first dose matters most.

What does the nurse do after that?

Each patient has a named nurse for as long as they are on therapy. The nurse helps with side effects, refills and appointments, tells the treating doctor when something changes, and arranges counselling for the family.

How are side effects reported?

Any unwanted medical event in a patient taking the medicine, called an adverse event, is recorded and reported to the sponsor and to the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, Kenya’s medicines regulator, within regulatory timelines.

What does the sponsor receive?

Regular de-identified reports on enrolment, turnaround and safety. These reports show counts and rates, never a patient’s name.

Who runs patient support programmes in Kenya?

A sponsor can run a programme itself or appoint a company to run it. InsightsIQ Solutions Ltd (InsightsIQ) is a Nairobi healthcare company that runs patient support programmes for pharmaceutical sponsors in Kenya. Its programmes are led by Dr Mukami Maina, a practising doctor; the figures they report are on the patient support page.