Covid-19 patient detained in hospital over Sh11.6 million bill

Oxygen inhalation mask [File]

A family in Nairobi is locked up in a tussle with a hospital over its kin it claims has been detained over a medical bill of Sh11.6 million following his admission to the facility on August 6 last year with Covid-19-related complications.

The management of Eastleigh-based Labib Hospital claims it asked the family of 50-year-old Nasurullahi Akiyda for a plan on how it would settle the bill before freeing him, a request the family allegedly failed to respond to.

However, Akiyda's wife Jamila Tabitha Wangari and her in-laws have accused the hospital of rejecting their proposals and unlawfully detaining the patient who has been at the hospital for the last six months.

Wangari said the hospital told them they will not release her husband until a payment plan has been agreed upon.

She accuses the hospital's of showing no interest in their proposals which she said included the family's two plots of land worth Sh4 million and another Sh6 million property Akiyda owns jointly with his two brothers.

Wangari says they were also planning to sell the land that Akiyda owns with his brothers and had even found a buyer for it.

The family of the father of five says it has since handed over to the hospital ownership documents to the two plots which the hospital accepted as collateral. However, the hospital has reportedly rejected the proposals they attached to the documents on how they intend to settle the rest of the amount.

They claim the hospital has not been keen on discussing the matter with a view to conclude it.

"I don't know what to do anymore. We have tried. We have given everything we had. Unfortunately, it was not enough. They have locked up my husband and are not interested in listening to our plan on paying their money. My husband is now getting depressed. He's dying in there yet all they care about is the millions we owe them," said Wangari who spoke from their home in Mwiki, Kasarani, in Nairobi.

The family, according to a trail of email communication with the hospital, had a scheduled meeting with the hospital's CEO Abdinasir Yusuf on December 12 last year to discuss the matter. However, the meeting failed after the facility's administrator Dancan Riaga reportedly failed to show up.

Other correspondences indicate the family was required to provide a proposal on the payment plan which they did, via email.

“It is shocking and absurd to receive communication from you indicating that we are playing hide and seek. You have also demanded immediate payment of eight million. We have consistently engaged with you on this matter and have neither played hide and seek nor intended to do so. You asked us to give our proposal which we did and also sent you the documents via email. Our proposal also entailed selling Nasurullahi's only property, a plot that belongs to him and his two other brothers, all having equal shares. It’s valued at approximately Sh6 million. We already have two interested buyers,” said an email the family sent to the hospital.

However, Dr Riaga accuses the family of dishonesty. “They have failed to give us a payment plan which is our only requirement before we release the patient. They have gone quiet. The family is engaged in shifting goalposts."

“You are told this by one person and then another one comes with a completely different story,” Riaga said.

He says the hospital is willing to help and even went ahead to facilitate the family to open a Till Number to help raise money but the family reportedly failed to submit the collections to the hospital.

However, Wangari has denied Riaga's claim which she terms malicious. 

She says the hospital required them to buy prescription drugs needed to treat her husband.

"At some point, we were told to buy a doze at Sh380,000. That was when my husband's lungs threatened to collapse. We used the money we had raised to buy the medicine. I still remember the name of the medicine; it is called Ectemra Tosilizumab. We even wondered what medicine cost nearly Sh400,000 per dose,” said Wangari.

Riaga denied that the hospital was detaining the patient. He said they will discharge him as soon as the family provides a comprehensive plan of payment of their balance.

"The family only needs to tell us how they intend to clear the balance. How hard is that?" Riaga said.

The family said they had already informed the hospital that the verification of the documents for the Sh6m plot is going on at the Kadhi's court and a grant will be sent to the hospital upon agreement with the buyers and a court order issued to have the title produced in the buyer’s name.

“Since the plot belonged to our father, instead of having the title in our names, it will be directly issued with the buyer’s details. The other property's documents, again of which you have a copy of, can directly be transferred to the hospital's name as we continue looking for a buyer,” reads an email to the hospital.

The family says Akiyda's admission to the hospital was purely incidental as they were only seeking a facility that could offer oxygen therapy.

“We hereby reiterate that the admission to the hospital of your status and financial standard was purely situational and not all intended,” the letter to the hospital reads in part.

It added: “We kindly request that you release and discharge Nasurullahi in exchange for the properties mentioned above. We are exhausted and impoverished in the process of treating the patient. Things are thick but we are not at all playing any game. We are only seeking the indulgence of your good hospital at this point on humanitarian grounds. May the Almighty reward you abundantly for empathy, sympathy, and compassion,” the letter states.

“Much as we appreciate your quality of health care, affordability remains the challenge since we honestly don't belong to the class of your hospital's patients. We plead and beseech you to treat us as needy that qualify for charity. We remain living from hand to mouth and in rented houses. We no longer have a home,” states the letter.

Akiyda says he is now destitute after spending all the family savings on his treatment and now faced with another debt of close to Sh12 million.

The father of five is also accusing the hospital and its staff of mistreating him due to his inability to pay his bills. 

"It has gotten to a point where hospital workers come to my bathroom to shower. Some dump their tools in my room after completing their shifts. I wonder why they have been allowed to treat me this way. They have stores where they should keep their equipment but they are determined to frustrate me," he said.

Wangari says the last six months have been hell for the family. "I have rent arrears and we may soon be thrown out. The landlord has been patient with us and this is just because my husband is in hospital. However, he seems to be running out of patience."

The woman now says her family is surviving on the goodwill of the larger family and well-wishers.