Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has ordered the release of patients detained in county health facilities over unpaid medical bills.
Sakaja has directed the county Health Services to effect the order and ensure all the patients with unpaid bills are released unconditionally.
“Christmas is a time when families need to be together. So let the detained patients be released so that they can go and celebrate Christmas with their families,” Sakaja said
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Sakaja spoke on Sunday during the Governors’ Christmas Tree lighting at City Hall.
The county boss did however not reveal the number of patients affected and the pending bills.
He also did not say if the county will clear the pending bills for patients to be released
Nairobi hospitals have also been detaining dead bodies which have not been collected due to unpaid bills.
In September 2022, Nairobi County disposed of some 236 unclaimed bodies from city public morgues which were not collected.
The County Secretary and head of county Public Service Jairus Musumba had given members of the public seven days to identify them.
Cap 242 of the Public Health Act says an unclaimed body should be removed from a mortuary within two weeks or else it is disposed of in a mass grave after public officers obtain a court’s permission.