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Davis Lichuma, who was tortured by suspected State agents and left for dead by the roadside during the June 25 demonstrations, was reportedly denied treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) because he could not pay consultation fees.
Mr Lichuma was abducted and maltreated for days only to be denied life-saving emergency care. This blatant disregard of human life is shocking, especially coming from KNH, the biggest and most reputable public hospital that should be setting a good example to our entire healthcare system.
The Constitution, under Article 43(1)(a), guarantees every person the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Further, Article 43(2) provides that no person shall be denied emergency medical treatment. Yet despite this, reports of patients being denied emergency care keep on cropping up.
This unconscionable practice exposes a healthcare system that has normalised cruelty. A patient bleeding from torture wounds, barely conscious, should never have been made to prove his ability to pay before receiving care. That such a demand was made speaks to an institutional culture where billing departments wield more power over a patient’s fate than the Hippocratic oath does over a doctor’s conscience.
