• Legislator said there is no property value in a dead body.
• Detaining amounts to subjecting people to torture and inhuman treatment, he says.
Image: /FILE
It will be illegal for hospitals to detain patients and bodies due to non-payment of bills if a proposed bill is passed.
The Access to Health Bill co-sponsored by Mathare MP Anthony Oluoch and Nyando counterpart Jared Okelo seeks to protect all patients, particularly vulnerable groups, from being detained over the inability to pay medical bills.
Other people unable to pay would also be protected.
It also seeks to ensure no one is denied emergency care for lack of funds.
Should the bill pass, health facilities will not be able to detain children, women, elderly citizens, persons living with disability, youth, those from minority groups and indigents.
Everyone has a right to security and freedom, the Bill says.
A report in April said discharged patients unable to pay were sleeping on floors and living in deplorable conditions. Some children were detained along with adults of the opposite gender.
A report by the Health ministry said in April, 387 bodies were being detained at the Kenyatta National Hospital mortuary.
Some 300 patients were being detained in various hospitals but were eventually released.
“There is no property value in a dead body and it subjects the person, whether dead or alive, to indignity which is prohibited under the Constitution,” Oluoch said.
He presented the Bill to the National Assembly Health committee on Tuesday.
The Bill sets penalties for facilities violating the law.
“There are circumstances where people have lost their lives because institutions were unwilling to give them proper emergency medical care which we now want to make a right," Oluoch told the committee.
The legislator said denying people access to emergency healthcare amounts to intentionally depriving them of their rights to life.
“Detaining amounts to subjecting these people to torture and inhumane treatment,” he said.
Under the Bill, a person who is detained in a hospital is entitled to invoke habeas corpus to insist that he or she be produced. Families can do the same for deceased persons.
The MPs suggested a special fund be set up to cover bills.
They acknowledged it is also necessary to address the problem of financing so hospitals waiving bills are not strapped for cash and private hospitals do not face bankruptcy.
“We should not infringe on the rights of those in business while striving to protect the rights of people. Some patients end up with more than Sh1 million bills so we should talk about who will cater for the bills unless it affects the facilities and runs them down in the long run,” Kasarani MP Mercy Gakuya said.
Committee chair Sabina Chege said it was important to educate the public on their rights to freedom because many don't know.
(Edited by V. Graham)