The Social Health Authority (SHA) owes health facilities some Sh77 billion as of last year, and the debt continues to accumulate.

This is according to the Brian Lishenga, the Chairman of the Rural & Urban Private Hospitals Association (RUPHA).

Lishenga was speaking during an interview on KTN which was looking at the health sector and its challenges.

“As at our last checking in August last year before they shut down transparency we were at Sh44 billion on SHA and Sh33 billion on NHIF, and remember SHA did not stop accumulating debts it continues,” he said.

According to the official the reported challenges with SHA were symptoms of a failed system that is by design.

“The problem of SHA is a financing problem, we have not been able to pool resources into SHA, sufficiently to settle our medical claims,” he said.

George Gibore, the Secretary General of the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO) condemned the government and politicians for always talking about the number of people registered on SHA and not addressing challenges facing the system.

He said that the government has been taking pride in the registration of Kenyans on SHA, which currently stands at 30 million, yet the same people are not getting the services they deserve from the authority.

“Facilities have not been paid, so they are not able even to upkeep to ensure that they can take care of the patients that are under them,” he said.

He faulted the sensitization and proclamations that healthcare services yet when they need them, there are no enough medical officers at the facilities and they are not getting paid on time.

“We want to see a change, that can be appreciated by those who are seeking service in public facilities not government standing on the rooftop pronouncing how successful SHA is,” said Gibore.

Brown Ashira, the Secretary General of the Kenya Environmental Health and Public Health Practitioners Union (KEHPHPU) said that the essence of having a Universal Health Cover was to cater for all Kenyans, but this was not happening.

“The essence of the insurance was to reduce the out of pocket spending,” he said.

He narrated his family’s painful ordeal, where his father died due to the failures he associated with SHA.

According to Ashira, a conversation with medical personnel at the facility where he had gone to seek diabetes treatment, delays to attend to him were occasioned by the failure of the SHA system.

Abidan Mwachi, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union chairperson said that the focus should be on whether healthcare can be available to the most vulnerable people in the society.

He said that at the moment this was not happening since there are no adequate healthcare workers and money to pay them and settle claims.

He said that it was not possible to replace SHA but it should be fixed without affecting the services that it currently offers without qualms.

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