RUTO goes nuclear as his Government threatens to deregister hospitals charging cash from patients despite SHA rollout

Thursday, October 24, 2024—President William Ruto's government has warned hospitals registered under the Social Health Authority (SHA) to stop charging cash for services, or else they will be kicked out.

Speaking to health stakeholders in Mombasa, Health Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai threatened to deregister hospitals that deny patients medical services or charge them cash.

He noted that some health facilities deliberately declined to utilise the government's system and instead demanded cash from patients.

PS Kimtai underscored the need for hospitals especially private facilities to heed the government's directive, warning that facilities denying poor Kenyans access to free healthcare services would be deregistered.

“Some of these facilities are deliberately refusing to use the system, some claim that the system is not working. A case in point is that for dialysis patients, they use the system and for other patients, they don’t," the PS noted.

Kimtai revealed that the government would soon publish a list of all hospitals registered under SHA to enable Kenyans to identify the health facilities contracted by the government to provide free healthcare services.

"Some hospitals give very flimsy reasons but now we want to publish them that these are the hospitals who have been contracted so that a Kenyan goes there and they are asked for cash then we will take action against those facilities," the PS reiterated.

The Kenyan DAILY POST