Mother, baby detained as hospital reneges on debt repayment plan

AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kiambu County. The facility has detained a woman and her baby over pending bills. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• By January 20, Wanjiku’s bill stood at Sh77,988 while that of her baby was Sh727,384. NHIF only paid Sh180,000 for Ms Wanjiku’s son.
• Wanjiku was asked to make a cash deposit of Sh100,000 to the hospital’s accounts office and later deposit a collateral in form of a title deed.

By SIMON CIURI
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On December 3, last year, Susan Wanjiku, who was 32 weeks pregnant, started bleeding.

She immediately called her husband, Mr David Sameli, who was at work. Wanjiku was advised by her husband to seek medical help at Lefame Clinic on Ngong Road, in Nairobi.

The medic at Lefame Clinic gave Ms Wanjiku first aid and later referred her to AIC Kijabe Hospital after noticing that her case was complex.

Ms Wanjiku told Nation in an interview that she arrived at AIC Kijabe Hospital at 2am, and after examining her, the doctors told her that she needed to go for an emergency Caesarean section because mother and child were at risk.

But even as this was happening, another dire situation was unfolding. The hospital, she says, demanded a down-payment of Sh50,000 for her to be admitted for the surgery.

“We spent nearly an hour in the examination room arguing, and I was not taken to theatre until around 3am when they gave up on the down-payment demand since I did not have the money,” Ms Wanjiku said.

NHIF COVER

Later, the woman delivered a baby boy weighing 1.7 kilogrammes, whom she named Zane Letoyo.

“My child was put into an incubator immediately. My son left the nursery on December 10 for admission into a maternity ward given he had developed some complications, and he was later discharged on December, 17,” Wanjiku says.

The discharge letter would form part of their tribulations after the hospital told her that the bill she had accumulated while in theatre and in maternity could not be covered by her husband’s National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover, where she is listed as a beneficiary because she did not fill in the forms with the hospital within 24 hours of admission.

As a beneficiary, NHIF would have picked Sh77,988 of the bill, she says. A deeply disappointed Wanjiku had to pay her bill in cash.

Documents seen by the Nation from AIC Kijabe Hospital indicate that by January 20, Wanjiku’s bill stood at Sh77,988 while that of her baby was Sh727,384. NHIF only paid Sh180,000 for Ms Wanjiku’s son.

STRIKE NEGOTIATION

Overwhelmed, she and her husband decided to negotiate with the hospital to find a solution.

They came to an agreement: Wanjiku was asked to make a cash deposit of Sh100,000 to the hospital’s accounts office and later deposit a collateral in form of a title deed.

Later, she says, the hospital declined to accept a title deed to a piece of land owned by her mother-in-law and instead demanded that the bill be cleared in full, and in cash.

“My husband had borrowed Sh100,000 from a friend hoping that we would be discharged, and I was very disappointed when they breached the agreement we had,” she says.

“They said because we had managed to get the Sh100,000, it was likely that we would be able to get the rest just as easily,” Wanjiku said.

On Monday, when Nation reached out to the hospital for comment, the management, through a Mr Dennis Kivuvi Nyali, said the hospital requires achievable and realistic commitment from Wanjiku and her family on how the payments will be made.

Only then will mother and child be discharged. “I just want to go home together with my son,” distraught Wanjiku moaned.