WHILE the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) has continued to show its compassion to the patients who are destitute supporting them to get treatment and other basic needs, it appears that some families and patients have continued to take advantage and abuse such privileges.
One such patient who is still reluctant
to leave the hospital is Chacha Makenge, who is still a ‘resident’ of
MOI Ward Number 18, despite being on ‘discharge’ list after doctors
satisfied themselves that he has fully recovered.
"If you have come to interview me,
please produce your identity card to prove that you are a journalist,"
demanded Makenge while seated on his hospital bed reading a newspaper,
when approached by this reporter this week. He then decided to remain
mute, after claiming that he was still sick.
The scribe had earlier requested to know
the patient’s condition following medical reports that he had damaged
his spinal code and was bedridden; and whether he had already recovered.
"Are you a doctor to tell me I have
recovered?” he remarked after also demanding from the reporter what the
purpose of his visit was.
But this reporter was able to establish
that Makenge was able to move around and visit several sections of the
hospital without any support.
However, according to eye witnesses who
preferred anonymity, the patient has continued to harass the medical
staff to the point of intimidating them.
"He is telling them that they are not
doing their job every time he is talking to the ward attendants’’, said
the source. The source told this reporter that the patient would always
tell medical staff to go away whenever they approached him.
He further reported that there had been
an occasion when the patient had refused to be attended by the medical
staff – that is whenever he felt that they were trying to convince him
to leave the hospital.
"He would turn to the other side of the
bed facing the wall, while the doctor or attendants were trying to talk
him, offering no response," he further reported.
Responding to the claims that Makenge
has manifested high indiscipline to fellow patients and some medical
staff in the ward, the MOI Public Relations Officer, Mr Patrick Mvungi,
confirmed that all the claims were true.
He pointed out that the patient had been
examined by a specialist who recommended an MRI test that revealed that
he had traces of old back injury, which were healed.
“When the patient was subjected to
undergo surgery to establish whether he could not move as he had claimed
upon admission, he declined and instead feigned paralysis. Eventually,
to avoid being operated, he disappeared from the ward for some time,
according to the PRO.
“We have already informed the police on
the patient’s reluctance to leave the ward and they have promised to
take action,” he said.
The hospital’s staff have been concerned
that since Makenge had been on and off at the ward, it was important
for security reasons to ensure his safety until such a time when he will
find it prudent to leave.
“We don’t know where he goes, which is
in total contravention of both the ward and hospital’s regulations. It
is risky to keep such a patient in the ward,” he said.
According to him, after realising that
Makenge was not able to pay for his fare back home in Mugumu, Serengeti
District, in Mara Region, the hospital decided to pay his fare but he
disappeared without notifying anybody at the facility.
Makenge is the patient who stole
national limelight when President John Magufuli visited the MNH. He had
briefed the president on the failure of MRI and CT-Scan machines at the
MNH.
The ‘Sunday News’ had visited MOI to
establish to what extent patients were being abandoned by their
relatives. There were also two other patients who were not ready to
leave the wards, but are still cooperative and were not reluctant to
speak to the media.
“Despite their insistence to remain in
the ward, these two patients have not been fussy,” said a social welfare
officer who accompanied this reporter in the wards.
According to MOI records, there are 19
patients who have different medical conditions in various wards that
have either no relatives visiting them or have been deserted by their
families.
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