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Unhealthy practice by some hospitals

Going by the trend, it would seem so, despite the fact that it is an illegal practice.

According to industry sources, such cases, when patients are unable to pay the bills, may come occasionally, but the action may vary from case to case.

While several medical institutions do accept that the ‘humanity factor’ should come into play, others argue that hospitals are not charity institutions.

The debate was stirred by the recent case of 66-year-old German national Dieter Graf, whose passport was confiscated by a Sharjah hospital recently. He had undergone treatment there after suffering a stroke, and had failed to settle the bills.

While Graf claimed the hospital had held his passport as he failed to pay the bills, the hospital claimed he had handed it over to them voluntarily, as a guarantee.

However, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has clear guidelines on the issue. “No medical institution can keep personal identification documents of patients for financial matters. The correct way is to either alert the MoH or the police so that the matter can be resolved,” said an official.

Though several hospitals refused to join in the debate, others had strong opinion on the issue.

“Keeping a personal ID is a mutual agreement between the patient and the hospital management,” said Dr Prem Jagyasi, Director, Business Development and Marketing, Jebel Ali Hospital. “After all, it's a standard practice of hotels in the Emirates also. They keep an identification document as a means to secure payment by their guests during check-out. Likewise, though not legal, most hospitals do keep an ID as a standard practice, but after a mutual agreement,” he explained.

Dr Jagyasi further said: “Only as a last resort should the case be referred to court. We are trying to link up with charity organisations so that patients can get help in case they are unable to pay the bills.”

However, charity organisations say they can help only to a certain extent. “We first have to make sure that the case is genuine,” said Hassan Tariq Qureshi, Community Welfare Secretary of Pakistan Association Dubai, which regularly offers financial help to the needy.

“We study the cases and only then make payments - whole or part - depending on the seriousness of the case,” he added.

Explaining the other side of the story, B R Shetty, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of New Medical Centre (NMC), said the hospital does not take any kind of advance deposits from patients in emergency cases unless it required surgery.

“We believe in serving the patient without looking into who he is,” he said, adding: “An undertaking is, however, signed by relatives or friends in case patients are unable to pay up.”

According to Shetty, NMC has an in-house charity fund that helps out patients in need.

But then, as the German national, Graf, had explained to Khaleej Times earlier: “Only after I was treated that I realised I had to foot such a huge bill. Because I was unable to pay up, and was afraid of legal action, I had no choice but to hand over my passport to the hospital authorities.”

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