Hospitals turn away government workers

Hospitals accredited to handle the controversial Health Insurance Scheme for Civil Servants have declined to treat government workers in parts of Western Kenya. Civil Servants in the region protested after they were turned away from hospitals whose managers argue they are yet to be cleared to offer the services by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

The civil servants spokesman James Abwoka said the private hospitals accredited two weeks ago are declining to offer services to them and they have been forced to change their choice of hospitals following the scandal at NHIF. He wants the government to quickly streamline the insurance scheme because civil servants are being forced to pay for medical services from their pockets.

“Civil Servants have complained that they are being turned away from some hospitals because there is no clear communication from those in charge at the NHIF. They are now being forced to pay for medical services from their pockets”, said Abwoka. Some government workers said they were turned away from the Eldoret Hospital, one of the centres accredited recently. Officials at the hospital said are yet to receive communication from the NHIF headquarters over the scheme.

The NHIF management was forced to enlist new hospitals to offer medical cover to civil servants following claims of corruption in the disbursement of millions of money to non-existent hospitals that Meridian and Clinix. Speaking recently in Eldoret, COTU secretary general Francis Atwoli demanded the arrest and prosecution of Medical Services minister Prof Anyang' Nyong'o in connection with the troubled insurance scheme for civil servants at the NHIF.

Atwoli said the minister has been interfering with investigations into the NHIF scam by claiming that no money was lost yet the probe has not bee completed. He said top officials at the ministry were involved in giving out money to non-existent hospitals under the medical scheme. He said COTU will ask all workers to stop remitting deductions to the NHIF until Nyong'o is removed from the ministry and prosecuted.