Several patients have reported cases of extortion by private hospitals in Kenya. Today morning, a lady took to Facebook and wrote this:
“I am a nurse at xxx hospital in Nairobi. I believe in justice and I have reached a time I won’t be quiet anymore. Since I was employed three years ago in this hospital, there are certain things I don’t like. Doctors have given us instructions that we should not allow any patient to leave this hospital without being admitted. If a patient comes and leaves the same day, the hospital counts that as a loss and the nurse who allows the patient to leave without convincing them that their condition require admission is demoted or not allowed to earn that month.
What is worrying me most is that whenever a patient comes for delivery, she is injected with a painkiller such that her delivery time is delayed. This way, the patient is forced to spend more time in hospital which translates to more money”
There are also other similar cases reported by patients. One patient told us that she was admitted at a Nairobi Hospital and when they heard that he has an insurance medical cover, they made sure he exhausted it even after he felt he had recovered. The patient says he was just feeling common cold and pain in the joints when he visited the hospital. The doctor told him he has to be admitted so as to establish the disease. He was shocked to realize it was just common cold but the hospital forced him to stay in the hospital for five days. When the bill came, he was told to pay Ksh 633,000.
Private hospitals especially in Nairobi have become notorious. They are worse when they notice a patient has a medical cover. They ensure they completely exhaust the cover before a patient is released. This is the reason you have seen in the recent past Kenyans taking to social media to complain of extortion by hospitals.
The best thing to do as a Kenyan is, always avoid expensive private hospitals if your condition is not worse. These hospitals will make you regret why a small condition made you to rush to them.
