Gwalior: Cases of private hospitals holding patients or their bodies hostage due to unpaid bills are being reported from across India despite several high courts ruling that it is illegal.
On Wednesday, one such incident came to the fore in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior district where a private Nursing Home refused to hand over a dead body to the family due to unpaid bills.
As per reports, a COVID infected man was admitted to the Maheshwari Nursing Home three days ago who subsequently succumbed on Wednesday.
However, when the family of the deceased came to take the body, the Nursing Home refused to give and kept it hostage for almost 9 hours.
Speaking on the issue, a family member of the deceased said that they had already paid Rs 30,000 in advance and later they were handed over a bill amounting to Rs 63,000.
Notably, the deceased's family was finally allowed to take the body after the intervention of state minister Pradumn Singh.
The state on Wednesday reported 12,758 fresh cases of coronavirus, taking the infection count to 5,38,165, health officials said.
With the death of 105 patients in the last 24 hours, the state's fatality count reached 5,424, they said.
Also Read: MP: Dead body left unattended for hours, kept beside Covid-19 patients
