Nairobi Hospital managers summoned to explain why it is detaining doctors body

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Council (KMPDC) has launched a probe into why the Nairobi Hospital is hesitant to release the remains of a University of Nairobi lecturer who died in January.

KMPDC CEO, Daniel Yumbwa has summoned the hospital's management to appear before the council on March 2 to explain why they have defied orders from the medical regulator.

“They defied my orders to release the body. They refused to respond to my letter. I have summoned the hospital management to appear before the council on Tuesday March 2,” Dr Yumbya reported.

The late Dr Lincoln Khasakhala’s younger brother David says his brother's body has been detained by the hospital even after the family drafted a means through which they planned to clear the pending hospital bills.

The matter has also reached Parliament’s Health Committee which has an inquiry underway to determine why the hospital is yet to release the body to the family for burial.

The Committee has since met National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) officals, Dr Khasakhala’s family, and the University of Nairobi, the late doctor’s employer.

Of interest to the authorities also is why Nairobi Hospital continued to treat the doctor from their facility in July 2021, when the family had requested to have him discharged to home care.

The deceased contracted Covid-19 in March 2021 and had been receiving treatment for complications from the disease before he passed away on January 8, 2022.

His wife who also contracted the virus at almost the same time as her husband, passed on in the same month (March).

With the help of Nairobi West Hospital where Dr Khasakhala had worked as a doctor, the family managed to raise and settle Sh2.9 million, clearing part of the Sh22 million pending bill.

Public health policies require bodies to be interred within six months, with Section 137 of the Penal Code criminalising hindering the burial of a dead body.