Drama as patients stranded at KNH storm Afya House to protest SHA glitches

Several patients from the Kenyatta National Hospital stormed Afya House after a media brief by Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa’s protesting the failure of the Social Health Authority (SHA) system.
Led by Grace Njoki and Diana Akoth, the patients said they could not access the health fund system even after visiting their offices and being directed to various other places.
“From last week Wednesday, the systems have not been working. I have come here to protest and say they are not working. There are patients in the wards who have been treated but cannot be discharged because SHA is not working,” Grace started in pain.
A man from Kibwezi in Makueni County, whose child accidentally swallowed a coin, was also among the patients responding as his case which is an emergency has not been attended to putting the child at risk.
“This man here has a child who swallowed a coin by accident and the kid has not received the attention they need because the systems of SHA are not working. There are many other patients out here with different issues,” Grace lamented.
Diana Akoth, a mother who underwent cesarean section delivery at KNH and had come back for a review because of an umbilical cord problem, said it is absurd that when they pay money the system accepts but when they want to access services using SHA they are told the system is not working.
“If you pay for SHA, money is accepted but when we want to use the services at the hospitals it is a problem. We are told to pay for six months at first but when we are treated we are told ooh…the OTP has not been sent, and the system is not working,” Akoth stated.
“There are many patients in Kenyatta who have not been attended to because the SHA system has not been working for over a week now. They cannot get treatment because of SHA. SHA, SHA, SHA…Whoever is in charge of SHA please help us,” she added.
“If the kid of this man here dies because of that coin, it will be because SHA is not working. The kid has not taken any meals since yesterday. It is not fair at all,” she said.
The storm of patients came a few minutes after Barasa had stated that the system is working and that in the new year, they have collected over Ksh20 billion with over Ksh70 billion being collected since its inception in October.