The Ministry of Health will take legal action against any hospital found detaining patients and bodies over debts.
This is according to a data the ministry presented from 216 health facilities on Thursday.
The data indicated that Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) has been detaining 184 patients and 387 bodies over Ksh 6 billion debt.
The exact figure owed to the facility according to the report is Ksh5,692,834,284.
The Ministry addressed the accumulation of patient bills in hospitals, asking relevant hospitals to waiver the arrears or enter into a credit facility.
Other hospitals detaining patients are Kakamega Referral Hospital with a total of 56 patients and Nakuru County Referral Hospital with 15 patients.
Kakamega Referral Hospital is owed Ksh3 million while Nakuru County Referral Hospital is owed Ksh 850,780.
In February, a man by the name Boniface Murage was arrested after trying to smuggle his baby from Kenyatta National Hospital.
Murage, whose story caught the attention of many Kenyans, had been unable to pay a bill of Ksh 56,000.
After Murage's case was highlighted by the media, various personalities came to his aid including Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko who did shopping for the baby and the mother and an unnamed Good Samaritan who settled the hospital bill.
The individual visited the man's wife, Agnes Murage, at KNH and cleared the couple's pending bill.
A police officer, Inspector Emmanuel Tamooh, from Westlands gifted Murage with Ksh 56,000 after he went to KNH to clear the bill but was informed that it had been cleared by a Good Samaritan the night before.
