MAPUTO, Mozambique’s Health Ministry has promised severe punishment for health workers who abuse the property of the National Health Service for their private interests after images appeared in social media of an ambulance being used to transport construction materials.
The National Director of Medical Care, Ussene Isse, told a media conference here that the Ministry wanted to make clear that it would not tolerate abuses committed by some of its staff after images, widely distributed on social media, showed an ambulance being used to transport construction material.
The ambulance had tansported patients from Pemba, the capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, to Nampula Central Hospital, the main hospital for the entire north of the country.
On its return journey, the ambulance driver loaded the vehicle up with iron bars for use in construction. Apparently, the iron bars are cheaper in Nampula than in Pemba, and so the driver purchased a large number of them and drove them back in the ambulance to Pemba. Unfortunately for him, citizens with cell phones photographed this abuse.
Even worse was the behaviour of staff at the Polana Canico Hospital, in Maputo, who used scales intended to weigh and control the growth of infants to weigh potatoes instead. Once again, people with cell phones photographed these health workers abusing public equipment and published the pictures on social media.
The health workers concerned weighed the potatoes even though there was a queue of mothers waiting for their babies to be weighed. The Polana-Canico nurses were more interested in sharing out potatoes between them than in checking the weight of infants.
Isse said that these workers are now facing disciplinary proceedings. He promised to call another media conference to announce the measures that will be taken against them and against the Pemba ambulance driver. He said these workers had committed crimes of corruption and abuse of their position.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK