A patient at the Nairobi Women's Hospital sued the facility after it declined to discharge her over a Ksh 4 million unpaid medical bill.
Emma Njeri sued the hospital over the violation of her constitutional rights after being illegally held since May.
Ms Njeri, stated that she was admitted to the hospital in March and later discharged in May but was forced to stay there after her payment proposal was rejected.
"The petitioner as at the time of discharge had accumulated hospital bills of Sh3,140,144 and had already paid a sum of Sh1,351,510 and offered proposals to offset the balance, which the respondent rejected and proceeded to unlawfully and illegally detain her at the hospital premises while continuing to levy unreasonable and unjustified charges," read the petition.
She claimed that she incurred an extra cost of Ksh 889,000 since the date of her discharge.
According to the mother of a one-year-old son, the hospital charged her Ksh 5,000 everyday taking the total amount to Ksh 4 million.
On October 3, the High Court ruled against the illegal detention of patients by hospitals following another petition filed against the hospital.
Judge Wilfrida Okwany pointed out that hospitals had the right to demand for payment of services but detaining a patient is not a legal way of getting the money.
"I am not convinced that an illegal detention of a patient is one of the avenues for the recovery of a debt within our legal system, because the question that will always arise is for how long the hospital will be expected to hold the patient," ruled Okwany.
Through the ruling, hospitals were advised to follow the legal procedure to recover the money such as a civil suit.
