Ministry directs KNH to release patients with unpaid bills

Over 2OO detained patients at the Kenyatta National Hospital are set to be released following a directive by the Ministry of Health.

The 250 patients are some of the patients who owe KNH Sh5.6 billion from July 2003 to February 2019 in unpaid bills.

“In the last few weeks there has been a public discussion on the topic of discharge of patients from the hospitals and the financial strain in several hospitals nationally,” said the hospital management on Tuesday morning.

The hospital has however not communicated about the release of 391 bodies that have been detained over non-payment of bills

Last week the Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said that KNH is owed Sh5.9 million by families who have not cleared bills of their relatives who are at the morgue.

Low income patients have been locked out from accessing services in private hospitals and rely heavily on public hospitals which struggle to improve the quality of treatment against massive budget constraints.

Most of the patients who do not have medical insurance are forced to dig deep into their pockets to fund the higher cost of healthcare that has blocked millions of poor families from accessing quality treatment.

The Kenyatta hospital has resolved to increase patient charges annually for five years in order to raise billions of shillings for facilities upgrade.

KNH said that it would raise Sh31.4 billion from patient fees starting this year and intends to spend Sh95 billion, including Sh10.7 billion on upgrades during the period.