The Mediheal Group of Hospitals in Kenya and two other local facilities are under investigation for illegal organ harvesting after it was discovered that foreign patients had received organ transplants paid for by the now-defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Health Committee last Wednesday, management from the facilities admitted that some of their hospitals had performed transplants on foreign patients, and that they had been registered and paid for through the NHIF, reports Kenyans News.
A medical officer at Mediheal hospital said five patients were from Somalia.
Questioned about the origin of the donors, hospital representatives said one of the medical centres was responsible for finding and matching donors with recipients.
“The role of identifying and pairing potential donors and recipients belongs to one of the Medical Centres for Kidney and Chronic Diseases, with whom we have a memorandum of understanding (MOU). Most of the cases involved blood relatives,” the officer said.
When the committee asked for details of the transplants, including the nationality, identification, and contact information of both recipients and donors, it was found that one of the facilities had performed 34 kidney transplants. Pressed for more information, the hospital admitted that some of the cases had resulted in complications.
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