Emma Njeri has sued Nairobi Women’s Hospital over violation of her constitutional rights.
The patients says ,she was illegally detained at the hospital since May after the facility declined to discharge her for an unpaid medical bill of over Ksh 4 million.
Ms Njeri, stated that she was admitted to the hospital in March and later discharged in May but was forced to stay there after her payment proposal was rejected.
“The petitioner as at the time of discharge had accumulated hospital bills of Ksh 3,140,144 and had already paid a sum of Ksh 1,351,510 and offered proposals to offset the balance, which the respondent rejected and proceeded to unlawfully and illegally detain her at the hospital premises while continuing to levy unreasonable and unjustified charges,” read the petition.
She claimed that she incurred an extra cost of Ksh 889,000 since the date of her discharge.
According to the patient, the hospital charged her Ksh 5,000 everyday taking the total amount to Ksh 4 million.
Judge Wilfrida Okwany pointed out that hospitals had the right to demand for payment of services but detaining a patient is not a legal way of getting the money.
“I am not convinced that an illegal detention of a patient is one of the avenues for the recovery of a debt within our legal system, because the question that will always arise is for how long the hospital will be expected to hold the patient,” ruled Okwany.
On October 3, the High Court ruled against the illegal detention of patients by hospitals following another petition filed against the hospital.
Through the ruling, hospitals were advised to follow the legal procedure to recover the money such as a civil suit.