SHA troubles: Patients stranded in hospitals

On March 5, Moses Ndolo, a security guard with Texas Alarms Company, took his wife to Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital.

She was in critical condition. She was received at the emergency section and Ndolo was told to wait outside as doctors attended to her.

“I waited outside for hours and no one came out to tell me to do ABCD. Since we left the house while the children were in school, I decided to go home and wait for them,” Ndolo told the Star.

 The next evening, when he went to check on his wife in hospital, he was asked whether he had notified the Social Health Authority about his wife’s admission. He had not.

Apparently, SHA has changed its rules and once admitted, you have to notify the authority within 24 hours.

Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi said the changes were introduced on March 14. “I did not know this.

They told me I would have to look for money to cover the hospital bills because I did not notify SHA in time,” Ndolo said at the CGTRH on Thursday.

Ndolo said he is registered with SHA and has been religiously paying the monthly subscriptions without fail.

As at Thursday, he had a medical bill of Sh138,720.

“I have been told my wife needs to go for an X-ray at Pandya Memorial Hospital and it will cost me Sh25,000. I don’t have that money. I don’t know what to do,” he said.

“Why should I be subjected to this torture yet I have been paying for SHA every month? If someone is registered and pays for SHA, why don’t they pay for medication?”

 “Why don’t they just do sensitisation on this new rule? Why don’t the doctors inform patients about this development?” That’s just one story of pain and disillusionment.

Boda boda rider Khamis Thoya took his elder brother, Richard, to CGTRH on February 17. His brother’s SHA registration was incomplete because they did not update it, Thoya said.

 The brother was treated for a month but succumbed to complications on March 17.

Thoya was slapped with a bill of Sh522,000.

“I am a boda boda rider. I cannot raise that money. My other brother, with whom I was taking care of Richard, also became paralysed and cannot do anything now,” he said. The body has been held at CGTRH until the bill is paid in full, Thoya said.

 The mortuary bill, which is separate from the hospital bill, also must be paid.

“It is okay. We might as well just bury a symbolic banana tree. They can remain with the body and throw it away if they want. I am tired,” Thoya said.

He said he gets Sh800 on a good day from his boda boda business, which he spends on food for his family and saves some for the hospital bill.

 UDA Senator Abdillahi, who spent most of Thursday at CGTRH listening to patients and their SHA horror stories, said she has witnessed first-hand what Kenyans go through to get healthcare services.

 “We have been going around asking Kenyans to register with SHA. But what I have witnessed with my own eyes, let alone the stories I have seen on TV, reveal many disturbing cases.”

“You are doomed if you are registered, doomed if you are not,” she said.

Abdillahi said for Ndolo, SHA should have considered his plea of late notification because it was not his fault that he was not aware of the SHA rule changes.

“Whose fault is it? SHA, which did not inform Kenyans of the rule change, or Ndolo, who has been religiously paying the monthly subscription but who was not aware of any rule changes?” she asked.

The legislator said CGTRH is a public hospital that should be giving services to Kenyans with convenience.

 “I was in Ward Number 1 where I got documents from more than 10 patients so I could talk with SHA people to help them,” Abdillahi said.

She called on President William Ruto to crack the whip and ensure those trying to sabotage the SHA programme are brought to book.

 “Why are the doctors, who know the procedures to be followed while dealing with SHA not advising patients? It is because they want the patients to pay cash to avoid the push and pull with the government when trying to claim their money from SHA,” Abdillahi said.

The senator spoke with CGTRH’S chief executive officer Iqbal Khandwalla about the SHA issues but she was unable to learn the way forward.

“I was told rules are rules and that there is nothing he could do,” she said.

She said the SHA programme is now becoming a thorn in elected leaders’ flesh because citizens do not want to know whose fault it is that SHA is not working.

The government has, however, maintained that SHA is fully operational and that many Kenyans are being served in various hospitals.

President William Ruto has often reiterated the government's commitment to addressing the few challenges facing the SHA rollout saying the implementation of Universal Health Care is on course.

Outgoing Health CS Deborah Barasa, on her part, intensified calls for Kenyans to register with SHA, saying that those who register will receive services without fail.