Banglamung Hospital is out of the mortuary business, with employees told to stop arranging the transport of bodies and funerals.
The order from hospital Director Narongsak Eakawattanakul came a day after he vowed to investigate a complaint from the family of an elderly woman who died of Covid-19 that hospital employees tried to charge her 15,000 to bring the mother’s body to a Muang District temple.
Deputy Director Dr. Chanchai Limthongcharoen said July 15 that, in fact, the 15,000 baht was not only for transport. Hospital staff had tried to arrange the entire funeral, with 7,500 going to the temple for cremation, 2,500 for coffin and 5,000 baht for transport and pallbearers.
Regardless, Chanchai said, the hospital employees were wrong to arrange the funeral and all staff have been directed to stay out of it. In the future, the hospital will prepare bodies for transport only and then families will be directed to contact their preferred temple to arrange transport and cremation.
He added that the government is not responsible for funeral or cremation expenses, even if the patient died of Covid-19.
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