How SHIF Teething problems is endangering Patient Safety

On 1st of October the ?Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) was launched to replace the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) as part of the government's strategy to bring to life Universal Health Coverage (UHC) whose aim according to Ministry of Health website is ensuring that all Kenyans access and receive essential quality health services without suffering financial hardship.

As of today has SHIF achieved the UHC goal ? Crying patients who have been denied healthcare services are evidence that it might have not. SHIF is endangering Patient Safety with the inflated costs of healthcare services that have been witnessed within the first days.Patients are crying that services that they would get? at no or low cost a month ago are now beyond their pockets with out of pocket payment being required to get the needed services.

In a n article by the Daily Nation, A family in Eldoret are mourning three of their Kin who succumbed due to lack of funds after a hospital denied them services .How did this happen? The transition from NHIF to SHIF created a scenario where they had no one to foot the bill yet they were registered members of both insurance funds.With the family previously depending on NHIF in such a situation.

This situation had Kenyans? on X feeling like the government had rushed it’s implementation with systems that ensure patient safety being broken or unavailable at launch.Many of them felt it was easier to fix issues that NHIF had compared to having a whole new fund with fears being that the new scheme is a scandal in the making.

A doctor through TUKO news? was quoted saying “SHIF is not good to anyone” he added that “We are doctors.We are the ones who treat mwananchi in the hospitals.When we come from the dark room and tell you that SHIF is bad,believe us.”

A health economist? who also doubles as a columnist on Daily Nation stated that after studying the African health system he is concerned that the new system offered limited coverage ,fewer services and lower reimbursement rates for specialised treatments.This all would culminate to an increase in patient’s out of pocket costs and reduce care quality.

SHIF is not all that bad with the new system being expected to expand healthcare services,be more decentralised and? solve more issues that NHIF had including the? cost of healthcare which we are yet to witness in its early days.

A frequently quoted proverb? “Clouds doesn’t always mean rain but?smoke is a sure sign of fire” might guide us in the situation we are in right now . SHIF is addressing many gaps that were seen in NHIF such as limited coverage in specialised services but the teething problems should be a call for the new system to be reassessed before it causes more harm than good.