Health minister: I don’t want to hear any hospital blocking dead bodies because of bills

Dar es Salaam. The Minister of Health, Dr. Doroth Gwajima has called on all hospitals in the country to put in place a mechanism to monitor how the patient can pay for medical treatment while he is alive and not wait for him to die and then block relatives from taking the remains.

Dr. Gwajima has stated that during her tenure she does not want to hear reports of someone’s body being detained by any hospital because of medical expenses

The minister gave the directives while speaking to doctors, nurses and officials of Muhimbili and Mloganzila National Hospitals.

She said the move underscores the poor practice of the hospital in the finance department in informing relatives of the patient in advance about the cost trends so early enough.

“There have been people preventing the release of the dead, let's always respect the dead because you must have had a contract on how the medical bills would be paid,” she said.

"How come on the last day you block the corpse from being released, I do not want to hear that thing all over the country, go and get organized. “