The Sunday News
Thandeka Matebesi, Sunday News Reporter
ST Luke’s Hospital in Lupane has denied seeking financial assistance on social media saying it does not have a Facebook account and members of the public should ignore the one that had been attributed to the hospital as it was meant to defraud them.
This comes after there was a post on a “Facebook page of the hospital” seeking financial assistance to procure equipment and the phone number of the Matabeleland North Provincial Medical Director Dr Alfred Muchara was used as a point of reference on a page attributed to St Luke’s Hospital.
St Luke’s Hospital acting medical superintendent Dr Munyaradzi Munemo said the hospital was investigating a case of fraud where a former employee had been misusing the hospital’s name to gather funds through social media which never reached the hospital. He said the person had been defrauding people from as far back as 2016 after resigning from the hospital.
“We have received a report of the hospital seeking financial assistance through Facebook. Investigations are underway but we suspect it is the work of a former employee who is now based in the United Kingdom, they used to work for the hospital but left around 2016.
“We are still trying to find out who was running the Facebook page because as a hospital we do not have any social media accounts. After receiving the report I tried to look for the page but it had been taken down. We are also not aware of the motive behind using the name of the hospital, we do not know if they wanted to help the hospital or if it was for personal gain.
But we doubt the sincerity of everything because if it was out of the genuine need to help the hospital they could have used proper channels of communication rather than creating a Facebook page without informing the hospital,” said Dr Munemo.
He denied knowledge of the hospital seeking assistance saying they only communicate through the provincial medical director or they engage their donors directly.
“As a hospital we are not seeking assistance and if there is anything we need, we go through Dr Muchara who is the provincial medical director, and if it is available in the ministry we are given but if it is not we then engage our donors.”
He added: “From the reports we got, it seems the person had been using the hospital’s name from as far back as 2016 but we never received any funds from anyone.”
@DephnyThandeka
