Khotang, Sept 16: Police and a sweeper of the District Hospital, Khotang have been accused of overcharging the members of the bereaved families for carrying out postmortem.
Hospital police and a sweeper are found taking extra charge from kin of deceased brought to the hospital for an autopsy. It has been revealed they charge Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 for each case.
“They don’t make process for a postmortem if they don’t get money as they demanded from bereaved relatives,” victims complained. In the case of Khotang, postmortem examination facility is available only in the district hospital.
People from far-fledged villages of the district visit hospital for the service in the case of unnatural death of their relatives. Bereaved families who are already tired due to a long walk have no option to fulfilling the demand of security personnel and sweeper so that they would not have to wait for many days for the service, shared Parshuram Ghimire of Jaleshwori.
Ghimire, who came to the hospital for the postmortem of his spouse who had committed suicide, was distressed and upset as no process was initiated for the post-mortem examination for four days. Finally, the hospital security personnel told him that he had to give them Rs 5,000 to get the service. “I accepted their demand as I had no option and in return they did my work,” he said.
Policeman Gyan Prasad Acharya has been deputed in the hospital for the past two years to facilitate the cases of post-mortem and hospital sweeper Padam Bishwakarma dissects the body.
When asked about this, Hospital Chief Dr Nawal Kishor Jha said the hospital is not allowed to take extra charge from service seekers and it has not, institutionally, overcharged service recipients. According to him, the hospital charges Rs 500 for one post-mortem case and gives Rs 200 to sweeper.
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