A Nakuru private hospital is yet to clear its name over allegations of sacking her staff after disappearance of two patients who had pending bills.
According to sources, the eight employees are said to have been sacked by Mediheal Hospital administration last week.
Addressing media on behalf of the employees, Peril Cheruto, a nurse at the facility said the patients disappeared at the facility on March 5 and 10 respectively.
“The patients who had been discharged disappeared at the facility on March 5 and 10 respectively. One of the patients had been involved in an accident and was to pay Sh85, 000 for operation services he underwent at the hospital,” she said.
She added that the other patient was at the hospital private suit and was to pay Sh400, 000 and had a history of having been stabbed in his stomach by his girlfriend.
The nurse said the two disappeared during the day and having been mobile patients, they were not under the watch of nurses.
“Nurses do not have obligation of handling patienst who have been discharged and during disappearance of the two, we noticed during the handing over because during the day, we were busy attending to other patients,” she said.
After the first incident, the management is said to have summoned all nurses and nursing aids who were at work and requested them to write a statement on the disappearance on March 6.
When the second patient disappeared on March 10, the management is said to have victimized the employees and vowed to take action against them to ‘teach them a lesson’.
According to Cheruto, on March 16, the management gave token to all her employees at the facility but the eight were isolated and told to go find the patients who disappeared before they could be engaged.
Further, the employees did not receive their March pay and after they asked the management, they were referred to Human Resource (HR) Manager.
The HR told them that a committee had been formed to probe them.
On April 5, the employees were directed by the management to meet the HR who said their services at the hospital had been terminated without salary and other employment benefits.
“The management terminated our service without issuing us with termination letters,” she said.
However, The hospital General Manager Santosh Devaraj said the two had a hand in disappearance of the patients and that they failed to appear before a committee that was formed to look into the issue.
According to Devaraj, everyone who was at the facility recorded a statement.
“The employees have not reported at the facility after we requested them to meet formed committee,” said Devaraj.