Video Clip of Mama Lucy Hospital Nurse Insulting a Patient Mirrors Rot in Public Institutions

 “Private ndio mtu anakuwanga na sauti ya kuongea, (one can only air their opinion in private facilities), this is a public hospital and we do what we want,” is a sickening statement spoken by a nurse in Mama Lucy Hospital earlier today in a clip that is being shared on social media platforms.

The nurse heard on the Facebook clip insulting one of the patients publicly is just but an example of what most Kenyans who cannot afford private medical care have to endure in public health care facilities.

In the clip, the patient is heard explaining her lack of finances, upon an order by the nurse for her to seek medical care in a Private facility. The nurse arrogantly answers the patient insolently which is inappropriate not just in front of the other patients but also in the presence of a baby who is seen waiting to be attended to.

The nurse goes ahead to demand that the patient should not be attended to as a form of punishment and proceeds to order her to seek treatment services in a private institution.

This altercation apparently is triggered after the mother had to queue to get her child, who needed medical attention, registered after which she proceeded to another long queue waiting to see the Doctor.

The lady is then told to go back the long queue to have her child’s weight checked, considering the amount of time she had to wait, she requests not to be taken back the long queue arguing that she did not know and neither was she guided through the process.

The nurse is agitated by this as according to her, “Mama Lucy is a public facility and the staffs there do what they want”, a statement that has sparked outrage with the online community calling for immediate action in the tax-payer-run health facility.

The insults the nurse uses in the clip are not only demeaning but are unethical.