Metropolitan Hospital in Buruburu, Makadara constituency is accused of using all means to get more money from patients.
The over 100 bed facility has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years thanks to acquisition by a Private Equity firm which cares much about profit than health.
According to a patient who frequents the hospital, something peculiar has been happening for a year or two now.
“The management after renovating the hospital, they bought an X-Ray machine. The machine has been put to good use since, with no patient, even with mild symptoms spared. They are all put on it as doctors recommend it like one would recommend groundnuts in a marketplace”, the patient said.
Recently, the Nairobi Women’s Hospital was in the news for all the wrong reasons.
The Hospital was exposed for milking patients dry by treating patients like commodities in a stock market by having targets for admissions and discharge.
Most of the time, the management of the hospital was admitting patients without any valid reasons, refusing to discharge them when they are well and overcharging patients seen by doctors who did nothing but increased their frequency of seeing patients in order to inflate medical costs and make the Nairobi Women’s Hospital super profitable.
In Kenya, Abraaj’s interests are held under the Sub-Saharan Fund and include, but not limited to; 18 clinics and 10 hospitals which include major stakes in; Nairobi Womens Hospital, Avenue Group Hospital (56.2%), Metropolitan Hospital and Ladnan Hospital.
– Quick facts: Private Equity firm Abraaj Group
Though the expose’ was meant to cover other hospitals, the mainstream media took the story and run with it, keeping Kenyans in the dark about other hospitals that are doing the same.
Turns out unnecessary X-Rays and medications is the order of the day at Metropolitan Hospital in Buruburu, Nairobi.
“The bottom line of this behaviour is money, nothing more, the x-ray charges
Effects of exposure to x-ray radiation cannot be overstated. X-rays can cause mutations in our DNA and, therefore, might lead to cancer later in life. The World Health Organization classifies X-ray as carcinogenic.
The management of Metropolitan Hospital has another tactic. That of delaying patients in the queues so as to cut the image of a busy well-to-do hospital.
Whatever the Management of the hospital learnt from Dubai-Based Private Equity firm Abraaj Group in terms of putting money before people’s welfare seems to have sunk deep even as the PE quit Kenya as soon as it entered in 2018.
