22 out of the 258 patients released from the KNH on Tuesday, April 2, have rejected the offer arguing that they have nowhere to go.
The patients who had been detained for failure to clear their medical bills after treatment allegedly have nowhere else to call home.
The 22, most of whom are street children and orphans claimed they have no families or friends to house them and that they had found a home at the Hospital.
The hospital’s management board stated that the decision to release the patients had been arrived at after public outcry.
“Tutatoa hio list ya hao watu wote, ukiona kuna mgonjwa unajua kwao tafadhali julisha hospitali (We are going to provide a list of all these patients. If you recognize someone, please let the hospital know),” Stanley Kamau a board member revealed.
KNH came into a consensus with some of the patients creating a payment plan that will see the patients try to clear their bills by paying monthly installments while others received full waivers.
“We have a few that we have come up with an arrangement on how they are going to be paying their bills on monthly installments and we have already agreed to that. Others we have done our assessment and seen that even if they stayed here for another 10 days, one month, one year, they will never pay,” Kamau added.
The acting CEO Thomas Muite expressed relief stating that the move would reduce congestion at the referral facility despite debts accruing to Ksh5.6 billion since 2003.
Two Members of Parliament have tabled motions in the national assembly in a bid to have the government compel public hospitals to forfeit all bills accrued once a patient dies during treatment.
Nyali MP Mohamed Ali proposed a motion to have the hospital bills waived while his Nyando counterpart Jared Okelo proposed an amendment to the Health Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, to have the bills forfeited and also outlaw the detention of patients.