Report: Patients escaped from KNH without paying Sh47.5m
What you need to know:
- A report by Auditor-General Edward Ouko tabled in the National Assembly says the hospital's management failed to explain how it intended to recover the loss.
- Auditors said patients owed the hospital Sh560.6 million by the end of June 2016.
Patients escaped from Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi in the 2015-2016 financial year without paying a total of Sh47.5 million.
A report by Auditor-General Edward Ouko tabled in the National Assembly says the hospital's management failed to explain how it intended to recover the loss.
Auditors said patients owed the hospital Sh560.6 million by the end of June 2016.
The report also points out that the National Hospital Insurance Fund owes the hospital Sh311 million, which the insurer failed to remit after the hospital provided medical services to its members.
The hospital had stated in its financial statements a debt of Sh67.3 million due from the National Hospital Insurance Fund, but other records showed the actual amount as Sh311 million. The management could not explain the disparity.
The report says Kenyatta National Hospital did not get value for its money in its quest to provide hot water in the private wing, Kenyatta Prime Care Centre Private Wing.
The Sh6.3 million hot water system, installed by Wilken Solar, worked for five months before it broke down.
The hospital also lost Sh411.7 million to the National Hospital Insurance Fund due to failure to review an August 2008 contract to treat its members.
The daily rebate rate of Sh2,400 for inpatient care was set to end in 2010 but was only increased last August, eight year later, to Sh4,000.
“Had the contract been reviewed earlier, the losses totalling Sh411.7 million could have been avoided,” the auditor-general observed.
