By PETER LEFTIE AND ESTHER MWANGI
The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has
published a list of more than 600 hospitals and clinics that will offer
outpatient medical services to civil servants and members of the
disciplined forces.
The health facilities will replace Clinix
Healthcare Ltd and Meridian Medical Centre which have been suspended
from the medical scheme. (READ: NHIF was warned of ‘ghost’ clinics)
In an advertisement published in local media on
Sunday and Tuesday, the NHIF directed civil servants and members of the
disciplined forces to seek medical help from any provider in the list.
The move was welcomed by the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) secretary-general, Mr Francis Atwoli.
Mr Atwoli maintained that the two suspended
healthcare providers should not be allowed to continue offering services
to civil servants until investigations into the alleged scandal were
completed.
“I am opposed to the idea of channelling public funds to institutions such as Clinix and Meridian,” he said.
The two health service providers are at the centre
of investigations into alleged irregularities in the medical scheme for
public servants.
The investigations are being jointly conducted by
the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Criminal Investigation
Department. NHIF announced the suspension of Clinix and Meridian last
Friday.
The new list of health service providers that will
serve civil servants and members of the disciplined forces from July 1
to the end of September has been circulated to all heads of human
resource in all ministries.
Sent to ministries
The Union of Kenya Civil Servants has also been
furnished with the list. Mr Atwoli noted that Kenya lacked a national
strategic plan on income and wages, social security and infrastructure
development.
He stated that all national governments were
expected to extend social protection for their citizens including an
all-inclusive social security scheme in Kenya.
“NHIF and the National Social Security Fund only
offer social protection services to its contributing members, other
Kenyans are not catered for.
“Cotu is ready to sit down and agree with NSSF and
NHIF on how social services should be provided to all Kenyans because
they have already paid for these services through taxes,” he said on
Tuesday.
But the Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS)
executive secretary for Nairobi County, Mr Wilson Asingo, on Tuesday
criticised the suspension of Clinix and Meridian, saying the clinics
were the “most convenient” for Nairobi members.
“Most of the new clinics lack a wider geographical
spread and thus inhibit transferability of services,” says the union’s
letter to NHIF’s acting chief executive officer.
No comments :
Post a Comment