A total of 37 patients who were detained due to pending bills have been discharged.
This is after a directive from Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja to release patients held in county health facilities over unpaid medical bills.
Mbagathi Hospital has released 18 patients while Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital released 19 patients who had bills amounting to Sh900,000.
Sakaja directed the county Health Services to effect the order and ensure all the patients who are unable to clear their medical bills are released unconditionally.
“Christmas is a time when families need to be together. So let the detained patients be released so that they can go and celebrate Christmas with their families,” Sakaja said.
The Social Works departments in both hospitals are currently vetting other patients who will also benefit from the governor's directive.
Some Nairobi patients have been unable to pay their bills in hospitals and even after treatment, they don’t get released due to unpaid bills.
Mostly, the hospitals also detained dead bodies due to unpaid bills.
In September 2022, Nairobi county disposed of some 236 unclaimed bodies from city public morgues which were not collected.
The county secretary and head of county Public Service Jairus Musumba had given members of the public seven days to identify them.
Cap 242 of the Public Health Act says an unclaimed body should be removed from a mortuary within two weeks or else it is disposed of in a mass grave after public officers obtain court permission.
