Claim: Facebook users claim a picture of a man lying on a dilapidated hospital bed was taken at the Bo Government hospital in Southern Sierra Leone.
The picture has been linked to many countries since 2019. Additionally, the supervisor-in-charge of Ward 7 for both male and female wards at the Bo Government Hospital Southern says the photo is not associated with the hospital.
Full Text
A photo has surfaced on Facebook of a man lying down and receiving IV fluid in a bed without a mattress and bed sheets in what looks like a hospital ward. This has been shared several times by social media users saying the picture was taken at the Bo Government Hospital in Southern Sierra Leone.
“Bo government hospital, Salone just pray God make u no sick bcus na d hospital de help for kill u now,” a post read.
This is interpreted as “Sierra Leone you should pray you don’t get sick cause the hospital will aid your death.”
Verification
Dubawa attempted to trace the origin of the image by using Yandex Reverse Image search which revealed that the picture has been shared several times and goes as far back as 2019. It is believed to have first appeared in 2019 in Nigeria and has been previously fact-checked. Since its appearance online, it has not been linked just to Sierra Leone but also to Congo Brazzaville, Kenya, and even Nigeria.
The image has been used numerous times either as claims or rebuttals as shown by Yandex Reverse Image Search
Some of the comments in the search conducted above state that the man in the hospital is at a referral hospital in Homabay, a town on the south shore of Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria, in western Kenya, others say it is the current state of hospitals in Nigeria.
However, for further clarification, Dubawa visited the Bo Government Hospital situated in the heart of the city to further verify the said image.
“The said photo is fake and has no semblance to any of the wards in this hospital,” says Staff Thereza Gbassay Moriba the In-charge of Ward 7 for both male & female wards at the Bo Government Hospital in Southern Sierra Leone. “People just want to make issues out of nothing as well as sabotage the effort they are making to upkeep the facility.” Dubawa went ahead to take a snapshot of the current ward housing Bed 18 at the Bo hospital with Bed 18 written on the white Paper on the wall indicating the Bed number.
Conclusion
From the findings and presentations above, it is untrue that the image in circulation was taken at a hospital in Bo City Southern part of Sierra Leone.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2021 Kwame KariKari Fellowship partnership with The Daily Trust to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
