The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Hospital staff fleece bereaved family

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 03, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Hospital staff fleece bereaved family

K. Manikandan and R. Sujatha

Dean says action will be taken against erring employees of Government General Hospital When they returned next day to take the body they found that it had decomposed

K. Manikandan

and R. Sujatha

CHENNAI : A family that came to Chennai for medical treatment was in for a rude shock after staff at a Government hospital fleeced them to the last paisa after the death of a close relative.

M.S. Shankar brought his mother, suffering from varicose veins, to Chennai in July for treatment. Mr. Shankar's father, M.P. Subramaniam, a retired employee of a central government undertaking in Bangalore, had since then settled down in New Delhi.

The family were staying in a lodge in Park Town, where on October 6, Mrs. Subramaniam died in her sleep. The father and son shifted her body to the Government General Hospital mortuary where it was kept until the funeral the next day.

The men produced the death certificate obtained from a private doctor to the GGH mortuary employees. But they were asked to pay Rs. 15,000, said V. Santhanam, president of The Chromepet New Colony Residents' Welfare Association in his complaint to the hospital.

The family made the payment, but when they returned the next day to collect the body they found that it had decomposed. The hospital staff blamed the faulty air-conditioning in the morgue.

The family was again asked to part with money for which the hospital staff gave a receipt for Rs. 20 as `body cooling charges.' Sri Gayathri Trust in Chromepet helped them with the funeral arrangements.

"As we were new to Chennai, we thought they were the charges collected by the hospital for its services. We were also made to sign in a register that we had not paid bribes to anyone," said Mr. Shankar. "The hospital should understand the distress of people and not harass them in their moment of grief." The dean of the hospital, Kalavathi Ponniraivan, said the complainants did not follow the procedures laid down by the hospital. "However, this does not justify the demand of bribes.

Medico-legal case

Action is being taken on those who were on duty [on the said date]. When a victim is brought dead, it is treated as a medico-legal case and a post mortem is conducted. An undertaking [that no bribe was taken] is taken from relatives to curb malpractices. It is unfortunate that this undertaking is misused by the hospital servants."

She added: "Measures are being taken to strengthen the mortuary services. The resident medical officer (RMO) will also have a complaint register in future." For preserving bodies, the RMO's office must be approached through telephone no. 25305000.

Mr. Santhanam said activists planned to take up the case with the Human Rights Commission.

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