Jinja Regional Referral Hospital has dismissed reports of photos circulating on social media showing patients in the hospital sleeping on papyrus mats.
The posts of an old woman and other patients sleeping on the papyrus mats laid on a small hospital bed have been making rounds on social media with people calling on the Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng and the Permanent Secretary Dr. Diana Atwine to take action.
In a statement issued by Jinja Regional Referral Hospital Director-General, Dr. Florence Tugumisirize, the posts are aimed at tarnishing not only the image of the hospital but the health sector entirely.
“This is to inform the general public that the pictures which are circulating on social media sites purportedly showing patients of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital sleeping on papyrus mats in the wards are baseless and as a hospital, we dissociate ourselves from those malicious posts aimed at tarnishing the name of the institution and health sector at large,” said Dr. Tugumisirize.
“The hospital hereby clarifies that someone, whose interest is not known to the hospital took pictures of the hospital gate and added other pictures that are not of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital wards. This is, therefore, to inform the public that those other pictures are not for Jinja Regional Referral Hospital and we hereby invite anyone who has doubts, to visit the hospital at any time and verify the status of the wards,” she added.
Dr. Tugumisirize urged the public to disregard the pictures and treat them as malicious propaganda by the person who posted them.
