Isiolo County government has introduced a cashless mode of payment of hospital bills at the Isiolo Referral and Teaching Hospital so as to monitor service delivery and reduce theft.
The County Medical Services Chief Officer Abdirahman Mohamed Ibrahim said that the cashless system of payment will secure finances and fund flow in the hospital and ensure 100 per cent revenue collection.
“Prudent collection of revenue and expenditure of it will ascertain placement of it in appropriate areas of improvement that will benefit patients and ease operations at the hospital,” Ibrahim said.
Mr Ibrahim appealed to the residents to embrace the changes since they were introduced to enhance service delivery and accountability.
“This is a new system and it may have some hitches but we hope that our team is making an effort to ensure that it becomes effective and simple without taking long,” he said.
The Chief Officer asked patients seeking medical services in the facility to ask for help from authorised officers at the cashier’s office if they are unable to use the system to avoid being conned of their money by strangers.
A local leader Mr Osman Sharif said that residents are happy for the changes and the new system could ensure no funds disappeared in the hands of officers within the health sector.
He also called for an alternative mode of payment that is safer to be used by the illiterate and people who could have difficulty in using the technology to pay for health care services.
“Although this system is of importance to us, we appeal to the county government to devise an alternative way of payments in case they encounter challenges,” he added.
Another resident Ms Amina Mohamed who is one of the patients who visited the facility on Monday said that there were delays in offering of service because the system had technical problems making them wait for long.
She said that some of the patients who were not aware of changes in the payment method were confused as many did not have money in their mobile phones.
By Kelvin Munene
