Deputy Senate Speaker who also doubles up as Meru Senator Kathuri Murungi has called on the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to prioritise payment of money owed to mission hospitals to enhance smooth healthcare services to Kenyans.
Speaking during the distribution of drugs to faith-based hospitals from Meru and Tharaka Nithi Counties through his Kamashinani Foundation where he is the patron, Muringi said mission hospitals were non-profit institutions and only charged little money meant to pay their workers and sustain inpatients.
He said the Fund should pay these hospitals their dues as soon as possible as the delays would strain them to offer proper healthcare to Kenyans.
“From our discussion, I have realised that NHIF owes Maua Methodist Hospital, Chogoria Hospital, and Hospitals under the Diocese of Meru about Sh600 million.”
“As I put it initially, these are mission hospitals and not profit making and if you keep their Sh100million and more, how do you think these hospitals will run?” he posed.
He said the hospitals were at the moment unable to pay their workers and serve patients as required due to these debts.
He called on the Ministry of Health to fast-track the payments and ensure that they are not passed on to the new health scheme, the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
“Now that we are transiting to SHIF, will it inherit the liabilities from NHIF, or what are the plans to ensure that this does not happen?” posed Mr Murungi.
All hospitals, he added, should be paid in time since there isn’t any single month that civil servants go without being deducted money meant for NHIF.
“Where does all this money end up if it’s not being remitted to the hospitals? We pray that the new system will be better than the NHIF which has been associated with corrupt deals and fictitious payments which has robbed Kenyans of proper healthcare services,” said Murungi.
He said NHIF should clear all their debts by June to ensure that the new system is not raided by issues that would deny health services to Kenyans.
Murungi added that they were also ready to do an amendment in Parliament that will ensure that patients with insurance covers were able to access drugs from various chemists or pharmacies without necessarily going to their registered hospitals.
He said such logistics should be eased in the new cover so that Kenyans could save time to engage in other productive activities.
During the occasion, Kamamshinani Foundation in collaboration with the EK Foundation donated 900, 000 tablets of Cetirizine to the hospitals which were expected to last for almost two years.
He said the two foundations were ready to help the mission hospitals since the money they raised was meant only for salaries and sustaining inpatients meaning they were left with no money for procurement of various medical equipment including drugs even though they played a key role in offering medical care to the people.
“We will join hands in addressing issues faced by these hospitals including medical specialised equipment. We will carry out a needs’ assessment for all our hospitals in Tharaka Nithi and Meru Counties and also reach out to hospitals like Kieni and Isiolo in Embu and Isiolo Counties respectively as they also serve our people,” said Murungi.
He said they were at the moment expanding their wings out of Meru County and very soon they would be able to serve all the major hospitals in the 47 counties in the country.
“Today we are distributing Cetirizine tablets but in the next three months, we will be distributing other five different tablets including antibiotics to our hospitals,” said Murungi.
By Dickson Mwiti
