HC's order against holding deceased's body

The High Court on Sunday ordered hospitals and clinics not to hold any deceased's body to realise treatment costs. It also directed the health secretary and the director general of the Directorate General of Health Services to issue a circular in this regard and create a fund for paying the medical bills of such patients. We welcome the High Court's timely order.

The directive came after the hearing of a writ petition filed by the rights body Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh in 2012 when a report was published in a Bangla newspaper that a hospital in the capital did not hand over the body of a baby boy to his parents as they failed to pay the medical bills.

An icddr,b study in 2015 found that 6.4million people in Bangladesh get poorer every year due to dealing with excessive medical costs. But as our public healthcare facilities are inadequate, people often do not have any option but to go to private hospitals or clinics for treatment.There are widespread allegations against these private hospitals of providing wrong treatment and charging exorbitantly. What is more, if any patient dies while under their care, hospital authorities do not hand over bodies to the patient's relatives until the bills are paid. Poor patients are mostly the victims of such inhuman practice.

We hope our private hospitals will heed the High Court's directive and act accordingly. The government, meanwhile, should also oversee that the directive is followed through.