Detention of patients over unpaid bills: Health minister, rights commission chair commit to end practice.

This was during an audience Minister Manaouda Malachie granted Prof James Kobila and his delegation. 

Speaking during the audience, Prof James Kobila applauded the Minister of Public Health for his efforts in the improving in the care and safety of patients in hospitals across the country. 

He, however, expressed concerns over the situation of patients detained in health facilities over non-payment of medical bills. 

Prof Kobila cited the most recent case of a lady said to have been held for 62 days at the Yaounde Central Hospital for failing to pay her hospital bills.

The case, according to the rights commission head, prompted the institution to approach the said health facility with the hopes to help release the concerned. This, Prof James Kobila added, was done Monday May 27. 

He used the opportunity to recommend the putting in place of a long-term solution by the Ministry of Public Health to address the recurring violation of human rights and also create an inventory of cases of patients held in medical facilities over nonpayment of bills.

Responding to the worries of the commission’s head, Minister Manaouda stated that when news of the detention of the patients got to him, he held an emergency meeting with his collaborators during which he ordered for the unconditional release of the woman in question.

The member of government equally added that he has already instructed the setting up of a commission to identify similar cases in all health facilities with the objective to have the release immediately.

Minister Manaouda equally condemned the practice of detaining patients adding that some internally measure were being examined at his level to put an end to the practice.

He, however, regretted the fact that some of these patients, who fail to pay their hospital bills, do so out of bad faith as some have the ability to pay, but refuse to do. 

Some of the patients, the minister regretted, refuse to go to the health facility for social services, where appropriate investigations are carried out to establish that they are poor and unable to pay their bills for their discharge process to be launched and their bills forwarded to the hospital’s hierarchy for payment by the state.

According to Dr Manaouda, the Universal Health Coverage scheme funding mechanisms will help to address the issue of payment for health care bills. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No3127 of Friday May 31, 2024