Alarm over Eldoret’s MTRH unpaid Sh7 million medical bills

ELDORET: The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) is losing over Sh7 million every month through waivers of patient’s medical bills, the hospital management has said.

The hospital’s Director of Clinical Services Wilson Aruasa said the situation had adversely affected service delivery, and called for the establishment of a social security cover scheme for all citizens to cushion hospitals against such losses.

“We lose an estimated Sh84 million annually in form of unpaid medical bills. That would affect service provision in any organisation,” he told The Standard in his office.

Dr Aruasa said they have been forced to look for alternative sources of raising cash to run the facility’s operation as well as pay salaries.

He noted that they are usually forced to discharge patients who have recovered and cannot pay their bills, as keeping them at the facility would mean that the hospital incurs more expenses on their upkeep without any guarantee that they will pay up.

“My call on both national and county governments is to establish a social security funding scheme that will cater for the medical needs of all citizens and ease the burden on public health facilities,” the director explained.

According to Aruasa, such a scheme would ensure that concentrate on improvement of their services.

NO REFUND

“We are never reimbursed the money that we waiver. If we had a social security scheme in place, then the situation would not be as dire as it is now,” added Aruasa.

The revelation came just a week after youths affiliated to the Uasin Gishu Youth Forum stormed the institution to complaint over alleged bias in recruitment of staff.

The youth, who held a meeting with the hospital’s Director John Kibosia, said youth from the area were not even being considered for casual jobs.

The group’s Chairperson Bob Tanui also questioned the rationale behind asking students seeking internships to pay some fee, yet it is the hospital that stood to benefit from their services.

“The hospital has limited access to the young professionals and it is unfair to have even students seeking to do internship to part with Sh3,500 for them to get an opportunity to gain experience,” said Tanui.

Dr Kibosia said the internship programme would be scrapped from January next year, and instead the hospital would start sponsoring six students from each constituency every year to undertake various courses at Eldoret Medical Training College and ensure they are posted after completing their studies.

MTRH is the second National Referral Hospital in Kenya. It is located in Eldoret, in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya.