Lang’ata Hospital Lab Shut Down For Carrying Out Fake COVID-19 Tests

Lang’ata Hospital in Nairobi has had its laboratory shut down with immediate effect for carrying out fake Covid-19 tests and the lab’s officials are now in police custody.

The fake COVID-19 tests carried out by Lang’ata hospital’s lab technicians were revealed during a Wednesday raid at the hospital by the Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technology Board officials.

The Lang’ata Hospital lab has been reported to have been colluding with several staff members of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri).

The fake tests from the Lang’ata Hospital lab were being charged despite being unauthorized as the hospital lacked the capacity.

Patients have been coughing up to 5,500 shillings for the tests to be carried out after which they would be ferried with the hospital’s ambulance to KEMRI to cover-up the act and the patient would be re-tested.

“The reason why we have decided to close this institution is that they are lying to the public that they are doing the Covid-19 tests while they are not,” Patrick Kisabei, CEO of the laboratory technicians’ board said

Kisabei added that they were trying to establish if there was any memorandum of understanding of any public institution that has the capacity to test Covid-19 when they came to the realization that Lang’ata hospital was carrying out the unauthorized tests.

The Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technology Board officials also found that the hospital had a stock of using expired reagents for tests at the Lang’ata Hospital.

Among other items found to be of concern by the Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technology Board officials are government labeled test kits which are not for sale yet the Lang’ata Hospital lab is a private entity.

Following the raid at the Lang’ata Hospital, the director of the hospital, the chief operations officer, laboratory manager, and the lab technologists were all arrested and are now in police custody.

The arrest of the Lang’ata Hospital lab team comes even as the Government continues to issue a stern warning against business people profiteering off the pandemic.

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