Fleeing patients cost Kenyatta Hospital Sh47m
Patients escaped from Kenyatta National Hospital in the 2015/16 Financial Year without paying Sh47.5 million.
A report by Auditor-General Edward Ouko tabled in the National Assembly says the hospital management failed to explain how it intended to recover the loss.
The revelations could explain the unending financial woes and lack of provision of better healthcare service by the largest referral facility in East and Central Africa.
The revelation also gives credence to reports that patients, some assisted by relatives, have been sneaking out without the knowledge of the hospital management.
Auditors said patients owed the hospital Sh560.6 million by the end of last June.
NHIF DEBT
The report also points out that the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) owes the hospital Sh311 million, which the insurer failed to remit after the hospital provided medical services to its members.
The hospital had stated in its financial statements a debt of Sh67.3 million due from NHIF but other records showed the actual amount as Sh311 million. The management could not explain the disparity.
The report says KNH did not get value for money in their quest to provide hot water in the private wing, Kenyatta Prime Care Centre (KPCC) Private Wing. The Sh6.3 million hot water system, installed by Wilken Solar, worked for five months and broke down.
It also lost Sh411.7 million to the NHIF due to failure to review an August 2008 contract to treat its members. The rebate rate of Sh2,400 for daily inpatient care was set to end in 2010 but was only increased last August, eight year later, to Sh4,000.
“Had the contract been reviewed earlier, the losses totalling Sh411.7 million could have been avoided,” the auditor-general observed.
