Nairobi Women Hospital Fees: A series of leaked text messages have revealed how the Nairobi Women’s Hospital overcharges its patients in order to hit daily revenue targets.
The text messages that were revealed by blogger Owaah show a doctor identified as Dr. Wanjala Felix complaining over the discharge of more patients than the set daily number. This means that the hospital has been refusing to discharge patients in order to rake in more money from bed charges.
The text messages also showed how hospital administrators conspire to limit hospital discharges. In one of the messages, Dr. Wanjala is see wondering how they ended up discharging eighteen patients instead of ten in one of their hospital branches.
The Nairobi Women’s Hospital Adam’s branch in Nairobi was particularly singled out for this scam.
Following these revelations, the Kenya Medical Practitioners Board said that it had launched investigations.
Nerbert Wakisa, who had a patient at the hospital in July last year was slapped with a hospital bill of Sh. 1.3 in three days over what the hospital claimed was treatment for menengitis. “I complained that perhaps their diagnosis was wrong. But they told me off and asked me to go home. At home, I got the news that my wife had passed away and the hospital bill was over Sh. One million,” he says.
Brian Akwiri, the senior manager at the association of Kenya Insurers says that the discharge process at the hospital are queerly out of order. “You find that either the doctor is not there to sign the patient off or the patient is unnecessarily being detained,” he says.
Here are the leaked Nairobi Women Hospital fees text messages:
These shocking revelations have lifted the lid on how private hospitals in Kenya have put their commercial targets ahead of their primary responsibility of caring for patients.