A prominent hospital in Nairobi is holding the body of a doctor after his family failed to settle a bill of Ksh18 million.
A report by The Standard on Monday, February 7, indicated that Dr Lincoln Khasakhala, who served as a lecturer at the University of Nairobi as well as at Nairobi West Hospital, succumbed to Covid-19 complications on January 8.
The university don had contracted the virus in March 2021 alongside his wife who passed away in the same month.
Khasakhala's brother David noted that after his passing, the doctor had accumulated Ksh22 million but the family, with the help of Nairobi West Hospital, could only raise Ksh2.9 million.
“Unfortunately, his wife died the same month. Lincoln had been weak and in July was rushed to (the hospital) unconscious and admitted first at the HDU and then the ICU.
“By the time of his demise, we had incurred a bill of Sh22 million. Through our efforts and Nairobi West Hospital where he was working part-time, we managed to settle Sh2.9 million,” he explained.
But this is not the first time a hospital is detaining the body of a patient over unsettled medical bills, with health facilities always coming under sharp criticism. The situation appears to have worsened with rising cost of living and poverty, after many sources of income were ravaged by the pandemic.
Reports also emerged on Monday that a family in Nakuru County was yet to receive the body of its kin four months since he passed away, leaving behind a bill of over a Ksh5.5 million.
The kin passed away in October 2021 after he was admitted over complications relating to Covid-19 infection.
In yet another instance, Florence Kagika was, for the first time, released to her family in September 2021 after being detained at Eagle Nursing Home for more than a year.
Kagika had a bill totaling to Ksh1.4 million in the hospital based in Nairobi's Kangemi area.
Her husband, Godwin Mahindu told the press that he obtained orders from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC)to secure her release
This incidents come even as the Parliament probes the rise in cases of hospitals detaining patients and bodies over unpaid bills.
In October 2021, the KMPDC chief executive officer Daniel Yumbwa told Parliament that some of the hospitals that detained patients refused to release them even after intervention.
