The mortuary staff in Coimbatore Medical College Hospital has become notorious for fleecing public, while handing over the corpse to the relatives after postmortem. Complaints galore have poured in as to the heartless ways in which the mortuary staff demand graft from the relatives to come to claim the body of their dead relatives.
About 5000 patients are being treated as in-patients in the Medical College hospital and patients from all the nearby districts including Tirupppur Erode, Salem Palghat, come to the hospital for treatment for various ailments. Other than this the bodies of the accident victims and murder victims are brought to this hospital for autopsy, a medical procedure to ascertain the cause of death by surgeons. The corpses are sent to mortuary after post-mortem where it is preserved until the corpse is handed over to the relatives
Complaints have poured in that when relatives approach the medical and mortuary staff to receive the body of their near and dear ones, who have succumbed in the hospital or their bodies brought there for autopsy, the mortuary staff are demanding graft up to Rs.2000 to hand over corpse of the dead person.
Recently the body of Bhagyasri, (17), a poly technic student who had died in a private hospital due to medical negligence was sent to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for postmortem. When his bereaved father Shakti (47) went to receive the body after post-mortem, the mortuary and medical staff in the hospital demanded a graft of Rs.2000 to hand over the body. When Shakti protested a wordy duel ensued between the father and the heartless men, manning the mortuary.
Finally, the body of the girl was handed over to the parents only when some journalists, doing the hospital beat intervened. This is not an isolated incident, such scenes are witnessed every day, say insiders and even some staff working in the hospital.
“Frequent complaints of demand for money and graft are often heard from the medical college hospital for even to hand over the corpse to relatives to their kins. Bribing like an octopus has spread its tentacles in the Government Medical College Hospital.
“ The Dean of the hospital and the Joint Director of Health and Family Welfare Department should conduct raids and punish those who are demanding graft, even to hand over the bodies to bereaved kins ‘ say the relatives affected by these heartless practice, which is going on without end. Click here to see the video.