This archive report was first published on 1 July 2021.
On July 1, 2021, the High Court of Kenya ordered Mediheal Group of Hospitals and Mediheal Hospital Eastleigh to pay a former employee Sh2 million in damages for testing her HIV status without her consent and disclosing the results to third parties.
The court, presided over by Justice Hellen Ong'undi, increased the Sh900,000 award given to the woman by the HIV and Aids Tribunal in November 2020. The judge said the tribunal's amount was too low and failed to consider that the woman also lost her job.
The woman, who worked as a waitress at the hospital's restaurant, had sued the hospital for testing her HIV status without her consent and disclosing the results to third parties. She alleged that the hospital's actions caused her emotional and psychological distress.
According to the court's ruling, the woman was admitted to the hospital on May 25, 2019, and underwent a series of medical tests, including an HIV test, without her consent. The doctor who conducted the tests, Dr. Sadiqi Parvez Ahmed, disclosed the results to the woman in the presence of other patients in the ward and notified the human resources department without her consent.
The court dismissed the hospital's counterclaim seeking damages for bad publicity and an outstanding hospital bill of Sh33,067.
Justice Ong'undi said the HIV and Aids Prevention and Control Act, 2006 requires that informed consent be obtained before an HIV/Aids test is done. The judge noted that the hospital failed to provide the woman with pre-test and post-test counseling, as required by the law.
The hospital had denied that Dr. Ahmed conducted the tests without the woman's knowledge or consent, claiming that she had consented by appending her signature on the admission/consent form.
