Four Mbale Regional Referral Hospital staff arrested over extortion
The Statehouse Health Monitoring Team, under the leadership of Dr. Julian Nabatanzi, has launched an investigation into operations of Mbale Regional Referral Hospital following claims of patient neglect, extortion, patient trafficking, and financial mismanagement within the hospital’s private wing.
The investigation was sparked by a tragic incident involving the death of a 26-year-old expectant mother and her twin pregnancy after four days of alleged neglect at the facility.
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This has raised concerns about the hospital's quality of care and ethics.
Preliminary findings reveal that some patients at the hospital were allegedly trafficked to private laboratories for services that should have been provided at the hospital.
One such case involved Achom Pauline, Midwifery at the Gynaecology Ward who referred a patient to Galaxy Medical Services, where the patient was charged shs 30,000 for an ultrasound scan.
A subsequent investigation led to the recovery of the marked currency notes and the arrest of Achom and four employees of Galaxy Medical Services.
Undercover agents were used to track the racket leading to the arrest.
“Police detectives followed up and arrested the culprits. A search was done and the money, shs 30,000 was recovered matching the earlier photocopies of the currency notes” the report indicated in part.
Further investigations into the financial misconduct at the Masaba private wing of Mbale Regional Referral Hospital have revealed alarming irregularities.
Mercy Nsekanabo, a Laboratory Assistant, has been implicated in under-declaring non-tax revenue after two undercover agents were deployed to the main laboratory where services are typically free.
Their samples were collected and then referred to the Masaba wing lab, where they were charged shs 40,000 each, yet no receipts were provided.
This raised red flags about the handling of non-tax revenue.
“On reaching the lab, we found out that she had collected around shs500,000 cash yet her record indicated she had issued only one receipt of shs15,000 since morning," the report reads.
Dr.Nabatanzi said the investigation is still ongoing.
