Nairobi teachers ‘visited hospitals more than peers in past five years’
Nakuru Kuppet members sing union slogans on May 20, 2015 as they expressed opposition to the AON Minet medical scheme.
Teachers in Nairobi and their dependants have made more hospital visits than their peers in any other county over the past five years, data from their health insurance provider, Minet Kenya, shows.
They and their spouses and children made a total of 911,651 visits, 36,630 of which were inpatient admissions. Some 799,298 outpatient visits were recorded.
This is despite other counties having more teachers, spouses and children than Nairobi County, which has 6,818. They have 3,925 verified spouses and 9,087 children.
Uasin Gishu followed with 568,194 hospital visits, Bungoma (496,899), Nakuru (476,052) and Meru (438,428).
Wajir County recorded the lowest number of visits, 11,637, of which 1,455 led to admissions. It was followed by Turkana County (15,259), with only one admission. Others were Isiolo (23,053), Tana River (23,299) and Mandera County (26,115).
Teachers in Uasin Gishu led in the number of maternity visits — 17,528. Nakuru County came a distant second with 10,002. Nairobi was third with 9,151. But the data does not indicate the number of babies born in the five-year period.
Turkana did not record any maternity visits by its 2,689 teachers. Other counties with low maternity visits were West Pokot (7), Elgeyo-Marakwet (10) and Nyandarua (11).
Under the medical insurance scheme, teachers enjoy a maternity cover of between Sh100,000 and Sh200,000. The outpatient cover is capped at between Sh100,000 and Sh375,000 across the job groups while the inpatient cover ranges from Sh750,000 to Sh2.5 million.
The scheme, which has been running for six years and is financed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), is the largest in Kenya, covering 334,531 teachers as of July last year and their 734,372 dependants.
TSC collects more than Sh6 billion from teachers in premiums and gets Sh3 billion more from the government for the scheme.
Minet Kenya data shows that, on average, three teachers die daily or about 1,095 deaths annually. The 2020/2021 period had the highest deaths in the past five years (1,430) while 2015/2016 had the lowest (880).
On the number of teachers, Kakamega County has the highest (16,290), followed by Kitui (14,518), Bungoma (14,017), Nakuru (13,998) and Meru (13,231).
Counties with the lowest number of teachers are Garissa (1,338), Lamu (1,372), Isiolo (1,415), Mandera (1,504) and Wajir (1,613).
The multibillion-shilling medical insurance scheme was previously in the spotlight after teachers complained about poor services, lack of access, bureaucracy and corruption.
