A recent case where a woman’s body was held by a top hospital in the city over an alleged Sh38 million bill is disturbing.
Grace Mungai, a former teacher at Thika School for the blind had been hospitalised at Nairobi West hospital since 2017. She taught at the institution for 30 years.
Her passing on injected more agony into her family as the hospital withheld the body due to the outstanding medical bill which her family had no idea of how to settle.
However, her body was released on Tuesday and is set for burial on Monday, her husband Joseph Mungai has confirmed.
According to Gladys Chania, a Kiambu-based politician, the detention of bodies by hospitals over unpaid bills is unacceptable.
“Retention of bodies is inhuman and totally unacceptable psychologically and culturally. The hospitals should get into another arrangement of pushing for bills payment but not holding dead bodies causing more agony to family and community,” said Chania.
In 2006, Samuel Maina, a resident from Ikinu, Githunguri had to sell his three-acre piece of land after the death of his wife Peninah Muthoni.
Muthoni had been in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for several months before she passed on leaving a Sh2.8 million hospital bill.
"I was a casual labourer in Kiambu town so I had no choice other than selling my land to offset the bill and get my wife's body to bury," he plaintively recalls.
To cushion patients from such eventualities, she says there should be a law whereby all hospitals admitting patients should assess their condition vis-à-vis their health insurance limit.
“Insurance covers have limits. Why go beyond that without letting the family know? There should be an assessment on insurance cover limit versus the amount it would cost to treat the illness,” adds Chania.
Further, she notes that under the legislation, a hospital taking in an ill patient should clearly outline the different methods of treatment and their cost from where the family can choose an option.
“There should be a law to discuss what next after the death of a patient. It should work around the prospects of either waiving part of the bill or strike a certain mutual agreement between both parties on how to foot such a hefty bill.”
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