A crisis is looming in Kenya’s top referral hospitals as Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) raise alarm over severe underfunding by the Social Health Authority (SHA), warning that public hospitals may be forced to scale down critical services.
The hospital heads, led by Kenyatta National Hospital Acting CEO Dr. Richard Lesiyampe, held a closed-door meeting at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH), where they drafted a joint petition calling for immediate review of SHA reimbursement rates and an expansion of covered medical procedures.
Dr. Lesiyampe cautioned that the current funding structure was unsustainable. “SHA must work for us to survive. If the system remains as it is, hospitals will not sustain services,” he said.
At the heart of the dispute is a widening gap between the actual cost of specialized treatments and what SHA reimburses, forcing facilities to absorb losses on essential surgeries especially those involving implants. Some common procedures, CEOs noted, are missing from the SHA billing schedule altogether.
Hospitals also decried millions in pending payments owed by both the defunct NHIF and its successor, SHA, saying the delays have crippled procurement of essential supplies and strained operations.
Among the proposed reforms are increasing dialysis sessions from two to three per week per patient, improving funding for kidney transplant care, and reviewing maternal and neonatal service reimbursements.
A technical committee composed of hospital surgeons and SHA officials has now been formed to iron out policy gaps and align reimbursement systems with real hospital costs.
The referral facilities warned that unless immediate adjustments are made, Kenya’s promise of universal healthcare under the new model could collapse under financial strain.
 raise alarm over severe underfunding by the Social Health Authority (SHA), warning that public hospitals may be forced to scale down critical services.){kind=link}