The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission has convened a meeting with private hospitals to discuss how the facilities should handle dead patients.
All private hospitals in Bengal with more than 50 beds have been asked by the commission to attend the meeting, which will be held later this month.
The points of discussion at the meeting will include whether private hospitals should provide for free transportation of dead bodies of patients to their residence and steps to be taken to ensure that bodies are not held hostage by the healthcare institutes because of non-payment of bills by families.
“The commission has received a letter from the Special Secretary Department of Health on May 23, 2023 inter-alia asking for our necessary observation on the issue raised by National Human Rights Commission on disposal of dead bodies at your end,” a letter sent by the regulatory commission to the unit heads and medical superintendents of private hospitals states.
The issues highlighted, according to the letter, are:
- Materials like wood required for the cremation of bodies should be provided free in all cremation grounds throughout India, at least for the poor and needy families.
- Poor families should not be charged for the cremation of bodies by CNG/electric system at electric cremation grounds.
- All government and private hospitals should be directed to ferry bodies home for free.
The letter from the health department also states that orders be issued to all private hospitals not to hold bodies hostage on the grounds of non-payment of medical bills by their families or for any other reason. Legal action should be taken against a hospital if it refuses to hand a body to the family, the letter says.
“The Commission intends to hold a meeting to deliberate on the subject so that it can express views to the Heath Department for onward transmission to the National Human Rights Commission,” reads the regulatory commission’s letter to the hospitals.
Health department sources said the regulatory commission’s observations were sought flowing an incident in May. Asim Debsharma, a migrant worker, was forced to carry the body of his five-month-old son in a bag and take public transport to reach his village, around 200km away, as he could not pay the amount demanded by private ambulances at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri.
Debsharma, a resident of Dangipara village in North Dinajpur, had said on May 6 that his twin children, a boy and a girl, had fallen sick and were admitted to the state general hospital in Kaliaganj in North Dinajpur the next day.
The boy was later referred to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, where he died. Debsharma did not get any free ambulance and some of the drivers of private ambulances sought Rs 8,000 for transporting his son’s body home, he had said.
He then packed his son’s body in a bag in which he was carrying clothes and boarded a bus.
Some private hospitalssaid they would attend the meeting and express their views.
“About 85 per cent of our patients come from outside Calcutta, many from other states. So it will be practically impossible to provide free transportation of bodies,”said an official of a privatehospital.
“Also, then we have to have a fleet of hearses ready because several deaths occur on a single day at the hospital.”An official of another hospital said they provide assistance to family members of deceased patients to get a hearse.