BY ANDANJE WAKHUNGU
A teacher in Kakamega North Sub County is being sought by a health facility for failure to pay his wife’s hospital bill.
The management of the hospital has expressed concerns after the purported teacher is said to have gone underground after only remitting Sh2 200 to the facility and the brother to the patient Sh3,000 respectively.
This is after attempts to have the Sh11, 700 for medical expenses paid via his NHIF card was denied on the grounds that the patient was not listed as a beneficiary of the card service.
The teacher Timona Molenje of Friends Shamberere primary school is alleged to have abandoned the alleged wife who was admitted at the Royo hospital on 24th May 2021 and discharged after 6 days, but has since been living at the hospital for failure by her long time male companion failure to clear the bill.
Records at the facility indicates that the patient’s bill as at 30th June 2021had accumulated to 44,250 for the 52 days she has spent there, casting a dark cloud on whether the two were in good terms.
According to the Royo hospital operations Manager MJ Muruwa, it is high time the man should resurface and settle the bill as the patient has been pestering them and besides becoming emotional.
“This lady was brought in by the teacher who introduced himself as her husband on the evening of 24th June in a very critical situation and our doctors had to immediately admit her in our emergency room where she was treated and gained consciousness the next day. The husband suggested that we deduct our dues from the NHIF card but it was found out that she was not among the beneficiaries hence the payment could be only made on cash basis.
The husband agreed to settle the bill and later paid the mentioned amount together with his brother in law before requesting the patient to be discharged as he plans to settle the pending balance of which as a hospital we could not agree as it is not part of the rules and regulations of the facility to discharge a patient with pending bills and without prior arrangement ,and this is where the problem began as he has been playing cat and mouse games with us, switching off his phone and at one time we had to trace him to his home after several attempts to get him on his mobile phone turned futile though he has been promising to come and sort out the bill which is still accruing due to accommodation and food services offered to the patient,” Muruwa said
The manager further denied allegations from the patient’s family that she was being detained at the facility and denied food, noting that she was instead being well taken care of as they await for the husband to offset the bill.
“Here at the hospital, we only have wards and not detention rooms and if anything then she should blame her people’s laxity in paying the hospital its dues and thus delayed her discharge this long, even we want her to go to her family as fast as possible but how do we release a patient with such a bill when the husband has stated that he will settle it?,” he posed.
However, according to the hospital management, the husband had suggested to the hospital that they deduct the bill from his NHIF card, but they declined because it was against their policy to benefit the third beneficiary who is not listed as beneficiary in the card.
On the other hand the family to the patient led by John Shayo has accused the man of neglecting their sister for that long despite having the ability to pay her medical bill.
“The two have been together for11years and now he has abandoned her in these times of need and we are wondering what is going on between the two, we are calling upon the hospital management and any well-wishers to come to the aid and assist us settle the outstanding bill as our sister has really overstayed in that hospital and it is causing her depression.” Shayo said.
However, in what seems to be a twist of events, when contacted the purported husband agreed that his NHIF card has been used to offset the bill and hence there was no cash he owed the hospital and wondered why the management was still holding her.
“I have received a message on my phone indicating that the card was used to offset the Sh11,700 and I am very perturbed by the way the hospital is operating hence I have decided to stay away from the issue,” he said.
When contacted, the patient also gave a conflicting statement from the management stance which stated that upon arrival at the hospital where she was brought in by a friend of the husband and fellow teacher( Achieng) she informed the hospital that she did not have cash, but her husband was a medical card holder and that she should be transferred to the Malava subcounty hospital which accepts NHIF cards but the management assured her that they would treat her using the card only to start complicating things later.
“Upon my discharge my husband brought the card which they took and went with it and after sometime they returned and stated that I was not among the beneficiaries listed to use the card and yet I had earlier been at the facility where I was treated and paid using the same card.
I’m frustrated, not being treated well and always under surveillance to ensure I don’t run away.
Something fishy is going on and since most of the time I’m indoors I do not know what’s going on but I’m held here due to the alleged unpaid hospital bill”,she said amid tears.
The director of the facility Clement Satia speaking on phone to respond to the grievances from the parties, was shocked to learn that the hospital was being blamed for the stand off and opened up to state that for the past one year the facility has not been NHIF accredited and hence the teacher was allegedly cooking stories meant to portray the health facility in bad light when in the real sense documents at the hospital indicate the agreement between the two parties that payment was to be made in cash. He cautioned the teacher against spoiling the good name of the hospital and his profession and instead offset the pending bill.
