Photo: MUHAMAD SHAHRIL ROSLI/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Notices and signboards have been put up around government hospitals stating that the forensic department does not accept payment for managing remains at mortuaries.
They stated that “the Forensic Medicine Department does not receive any payment for the management of bodies”.
A check by The Star found such notices being displayed at hospitals in Tanjong Karang and Kuala Lumpur.
Sources said some Health Ministry hospitals have put up the notice following a circular in April prohibiting the staff from receiving any gift, contribution or payment that is seen as an inducement in managing and providing information of deceased patients.
“The new circular requires this notice,” said a source.
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Last Thursday, The Star ran an extensive report about the entrenched practice of money being exchanged for information between hospital staff and undertakers who wanted contact details of the dead person’s next of kin.
Among others, the report said that undertakers would pay between RM250 and RM600 for each “notification”.
There were also accounts of undertakers visiting family members of terminally ill patients at the ward, or contacting them even before the ambulance arrived.
But in spite of the ministry’s circular and notices, the question remains whether the “tipping” practice between undertakers and staff members will end.
An undertaker, who has been in the business for over 30 years, claimed that these staff members seemed unbothered about the ministry’s warning as they released names of the deceased and the contact numbers of their next-of-kin to undertakers.
“The ministry has put up signboards at all public hospital mortuaries prohibiting the practice, but some of them just do not care,” he claimed.
According to the undertaker, the signboards were put up after five employees of a public hospital in Seremban were arrested and charged seven months ago with accepting bribes ranging from RM600 to RM2,250 for mortuary services between 2021 and 2023.
“The signboards were put up soon after they were charged in court,” he said.
According to him, the enforcement authorities must engage the undertakers as a way to end the “duit kopi” practice.
“They must be stopped from offering gratification to hospital staff in exchange for the tip-off and information whenever there is a death,” he said.
He said undertakers should improve their own business strategies and promotion efforts, instead of resorting to shortcuts like bribing hospital staff.
However, the director of another funeral business gave a different update on the latest situation.
He said that his company had not received any calls from forensic department staff after the matter blew up in the media a few weeks ago.
“They just stopped calling all of a sudden,” said the man whose company covers hospitals in Kuala Lumpur.
He believed that mortuary employees who previously indulged in such financial gratification must have been concerned about the media attention on the matter.
According to sources, those working in urban hospitals seemed to be more worried about the ramifications of accepting bribes from funeral services companies unlike their counterparts based in district hospitals.
