Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) has fired nurse Ello Ed Mundsel Bello for making “offensive online comments”. The hospital announced this in a Facebook post on Friday (Jan 9).
The hospital had reviewed three online posts made by him in 2014 that touched on race and religion. One was an “offensive Facebook comment on Singapore”, while the other two comments on religion were made on his Google Plus page, TTSH said.
“Mr Bello has confirmed that he had made these three posts,” the hospital said, describing the comments as “highly irresponsible and offensive to Singapore and religion”.
“His conduct goes against our staff values of respect, professionalism and social responsibility. As a public healthcare institution, we take a very serious view and have zero tolerance on conduct that is offensive and detrimental to multi-cultural harmony in Singapore,” said TTSH.
The employee in question had joined the hospital in Oct last year and was under probation. TTSH had said on Jan 4 on its Facebook page that Mr Bello had claimed that his Facebook account was hacked.
A day later on Jan 5, the hospital made another posting that described this as a “serious matter” and that it does not “condone behaviours or comments that are irresponsible and offensive, and will take the appropriate disciplinary action where necessary”.
The dismissal is independent of the ongoing police investigation of alleged posts made in January 2015, the hospital added. “We are still in full cooperation with the police on the alleged comments”.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
