Shollei, Wanga, Sabina blast KNH for detaining mothers over unpaid bills

A section of women leaders now say that the Chief Executive Officer at Kenyatta National Hospital(KNH) should be held accountable for alleged poor management at the facility.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s Day Break Show, Homa Bay Women Representative Gladys Wanga further faulted the Ministry of Health over reports of detained patients at KNH.

“The Cabinet Secretary is the one who should come out and answer questions about KNH and not the two-week-old Principal Secretary who is thrown in the committee to answer questions,” said Wanga.

The leaders were speaking following an expose aired by Citizen TV on Monday that revealed over 20 women sleeping on the floor after being detained at the facility for failing to clear medical bills.

While insisting that the detaining is a violation of patient’s rights, Murang’a Women Rep Sabina Chege lashed out at the health ministry terming it “a mess.”

Chege further questioned the role by the National Hospital Insurance Fund’s (NHIF) Linda Mama programme that is meant to take care of the pregnant women countrywide.

According to NHIF, Linda Mama is a publicly funded health scheme “that will ensure that pregnant women and infants have access to quality and affordable health services.”

In the Citizen TV expose, Susan Wanjiru, a detainee was among the women held at KNH after she was unable to raise Ksh.53,000 yet she was covered by NHIF under the Linda Mama program.

Uasin Gishu Woman Rep Gladys Boss Shollei insisted that the rot at KNH was at the management level saying that KNH should study how Moi Teaching Referral Hospital(MTRH) operates.

According to Shollei, the hospitals are on the same level and under the same ministry and yet MTRH serves better all the while serving 19 counties around it.

“The MTRH has social workers that support the needy cases and discharge them. The longer you keep these patients in the hospitals the more you incur costs on them,” Shollei added.

The leaders have insisted that the detaining of patients is among other things, a violation of their rights.

This comes a month after a man was arrested for trying to escape with a baby over a Ksh.56,000 hospital bill.