Police in Arua is holding a crafty nurse for reportedly demanding a bribe to operate on a two year old baby who later died.
The male nurse identified as Paul Wamala, attached to Arua Regional Referral Hospital theatre, is accused of receiving over 200,000 shillings from relatives to the toddler to carry out a sensitive intestinal obstruction operation.
Wamala reportedly delayed a life-saving surgery for eight hours leading to the death of their child Aron Nabil. Relatives to the deceased claim the operation took place after close to 8 hours of delay, because the nurse on duty asked them to provide money for drugs and facilitation for treatment.
Wamala allegedly asked for an initial deposit 30,000 Shillings in cash to buy medicines to commence the procedure. He then returned shortly after and demanded an additional 180,000 Shillings from the relatives which they didn’t have.
Wamala later denied the allegations claiming he never had a discussion with the concerned parties about money .
Josephine Angucia, the West Nile regional police spokesperson, says the arrest was delayed because the suspect had abandoned his workstation after the incident and his whereabouts had remained unknown. Angucia, the suspect will be produced before the court once the investigations are complete.
This is not the first time that a staff of Arua Regional Referral Hospital is been arrested over abuse of office. The latest incident involved the arrest of three staff of the Hospital in February this year, over the alleged theft of digital x-ray machine components which they used to secure a loan of sh1.2 million from a financial institution in Arua City.
Similarly, in December 2021, the Inspectorate of Government arrested two former staff of the hospital over alleged embezzlement of 28 million Shillings that was advanced to the hospital under the Uganda Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (UPHIA) project.
