Several days after Nairobi Women’s Hospital was exposed for defrauding patients, health insurers have taken drastic action.
Health insurers will not honour future bills from the Nairobi Women’s Hospital, officials said on Tuesday (04.02.2020).
Leaked WhatsApp chats that went viral about two weeks ago appear to show how the hospital bosses set daily targets for the number of patients who should be admitted. They show that the revenue, commissions, admissions and discharge numbers were allegedly being actively monitored hourly, every day, and day and night by the Chief Executive Officer, Dr Felix Wanjala.
To do this, the CEO recommended that his team, based at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital branch in Nakuru (called Nakuru Hyrax) should “start with looking for referrals”, not miss “any opportunity (to admit)”, and be “very vigilant in casualty”.
A communication manager at an insurance firm who wished to remain anonymous said that patients currently admitted at the hospital would not be affected, Nairobi News reported.
The news comes after the hospital’s board of directors issued a statement saying it had commenced an internal investigation into claims that its doctors force patients to undertake unnecessary procedures.
The board said it was also cooperating with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Council, which is also conducting an independent investigation.
The medical council CEO, Dr Eva Njenga said that they would reveal their findings within a month.
