15/01/2026
SOCIAL MEDIA SHOULD NOT BE THE FIRST REPORTING DESK FOR HOSPITAL CONFLICTS🥹💔🤦
It has become common for people to rush to social media whenever they experience conflict with health personnel. This trend has also been observed at major referral centers such as Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital. While pain, fear, and frustration during illness are understandable, turning social media into a courtroom often causes more harm than good.
Hospitals are emotional environments. When a loved one is unwell, families are anxious, scared, and sometimes overwhelmed. In such moments, emotions can easily turn into anger. Unfortunately, this anger is often directed at nurses and other health workers who are already working under intense pressure, staff shortages, and limited resources.
Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital, like many public hospitals, operates using systems such as triage and prioritization. Patients are attended to based on the severity of their condition, not on who arrived first or who is shouting the loudest. What may appear as neglect is often a professional decision made to save a life in critical danger.
Social media tells only one side of the story. It does not show the nurse who has been on duty for over 12 hours without rest, the clinician managing dozens of patients at once, or the limited equipment and supplies health workers are forced to work with. Public accusations damage reputations, lower morale, and push dedicated professionals out of a system that already needs them desperately.
This does not mean that health personnel at Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital or elsewhere are above accountability. Complaints are valid and necessary—but they must be handled through the right channels. Reporting concerns to hospital management allows investigations to be conducted fairly, both the patient and the health worker to be heard, and real solutions to be implemented. Social media outrage rarely fixes systems; it only creates fear, hostility, and misinformation.
As someone who understands how families behave when a relative is admitted, I will always stand in defense of health personnel. Nurses and doctors are human beings first before they are professionals. They deserve respect, protection, and understanding as they carry out the difficult duty of saving lives.
Let us promote dialogue, proper reporting, and mutual respect. Healthcare works best when patients, families, and health workers see each other as partners—not enemies.
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