The Ministry of Health is set to launch an investigation on Baho International Hospital, a private facility based in Kigali, after several patients took to social media to complain about the hospital’s operations.
The probe was announced by Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the Minister of Health on Saturday, July 10 while responding to a number of Twitter posts shared by various people who were protesting against the quality of services that the hospital is providing.
The social media user did not provide much detail on her experience, but a barrage of other complaints followed hers from other users who claimed to have had bad experience with the Nyarutarama-based hospital.
However, speaking to The New Times, Baho International Hospital’s Public Relations Officer Janvier Munyaneza said the complaints had come as a surprise to them since no client has ever approached them before, complaining of misdiagnosis.
"We have phone numbers and a customer care team which receives complaints and suggestions (on making services better), but we have never received a complaint about misdiagnosis. So, we did not know about that. After seeing it (on social media), we tried to enquire with all our doctors and services, but we did not find that case,” he said.
He also said that the hospital’s hygiene standards are good, because they attach great value to that.
"We do give a lot of value to hygiene because a hospital should have very good hygiene. We get many customers, especially international ones, and there is no way you can receive them without good hygiene standards. For us, our hygiene standard is high,” he said.
About the ministry’s move to investigate them, Munyaneza said they will happily cooperate.
"The Ministry of Health coming to investigate what happened is good for us. They can see how our hospital is working well. We are happy if they come,” he said.
Meanwhile, mid last month, MoH temporarily closed three health clinics based in Kigali in a move it said was triggered by irregularities in their operation.
These included Gasabo-based Isangano Clinic, Sante Clinique Nyarugenge, and Polyclinique le Bon Berger in Kicukiro District.
The closure was informed by the general inspection which exposed some irregularities in the health clinics, the ministry said in a tweet.