There have been a number of instances of hospitals detaining patients over unpaid medical bills during the ongoing lockdown. This growing practice is a violation of human rights including the right to dignity and freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment as well as the right to personal liberty.
Hospitals are not legally gazetted detention centres for payment defaulters. Under no circumstance therefore, is a hospital permitted by law to detain a patient alive or dead in order to secure payment of medical bills.
In fact, in doing so a hospital may attract liability for false imprisonment or unlawful restriction of one’s liberty. Worse still, withholding the body of a deceased patient amounts to "unlawful hindering of the burial of a dead body", a criminal offence punishable with a 2-year prison sentence under Section 121 of the Penal Code Act Cap. 120.
This does not mean unpaid hospitals have no remedy. They can actually recover unpaid medical arrears legally through suing a patient or his/her legal representative (where the patient is dead) for recovery of the unpaid medical arrears in Court.
Also instead of "detaining" patients, hospitals should prior obtain letters of undertaking form the patients or their next of kins to pay the hospital bills before discharging them. These, in addition to hospital bills can be used to prove existence of the arrears in Court.
There have been a number of instances of hospitals detaining patients over unpaid medical bills during the ongoing lockdown. This growing practice is a violation of human rights including the right to dignity and freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment as well as the right to personal liberty.
Hospitals are not legally gazetted detention centres for payment defaulters. Under no circumstance therefore, is a hospital permitted by law to detain a patient alive or dead in order to secure payment of medical bills.
In fact, in doing so a hospital may attract liability for false imprisonment or unlawful restriction of one’s liberty. Worse still, withholding the body of a deceased patient amounts to "unlawful hindering of the burial of a dead body", a criminal offence punishable with a 2-year prison sentence under **Section 121 of the Penal Code Act Cap. 120.**
This does not mean unpaid hospitals have no remedy. They can actually recover unpaid medical arrears legally through suing a patient or his/her legal representative (where the patient is dead) for recovery of the unpaid medical arrears in Court.
Also instead of "detaining" patients, hospitals should prior obtain letters of undertaking form the patients or their next of kins to pay the hospital bills before discharging them. These, in addition to hospital bills can be used to prove existence of the arrears in Court.
