Reprieve For Parents, Patients as MPs Adopt Report

President Uhuru Kenyatta interacts with students of Nyiro Girls’ Secondary School, Samburu County at State House, Nairobi after donating a bus to the school on Friday, November 1, 2019.
President Uhuru Kenyatta interacts with students of Nyiro Girls’ Secondary School, Samburu County at State House, Nairobi after donating a bus to the school on Friday, November 1, 2019.
PSCU

Parents and patients can now sigh with relief thanks to a new report adopted by Members of the National Assembly on Tuesday, December 1.

In the report, the lawmakers require that all hospitals halt charging patients for Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).

The report also recommended that the government should provide free reusable face masks in schools.

This comes after an outcry from patients who have complained about the PPE charges include in the medical bills following the spread of Covid-19 since March.

Medical practitioners at a Coronavirus isolation and treatment facility in Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020.
Medical practitioners at a Coronavirus isolation and treatment facility in Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020.
Simon Kiragu
KENYANS.CO.KE

In June, Education CS George Magoha revealed that parents would have to bear some of the costs of acquiring personal protective equipment (PPE) ahead of the school reopening.

"We must tackle this problem together. It is the duty of the government to provide thermo guns. What I have said is that we shall supply the thermo guns.

"The government is not where it was two years go so that there is money where you just apply and it comes," stated Magoha at the time.

The former chairman of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) had also noted that the government would provide two face masks but urged parents to buy more.

Some patients had revealed that they have been charged up to Ksh4,000 a day for a PPE and up to 80 different sets of N95 facemasks which are charged for Ksh2,000 per mask.

Patients can be billed up to Ksh1.8 million for an eight-day treatment.

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Education CS George Magoha addresses the media in October 2020
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