Punjab Government initiates free of cost mortuary van services – Brahm Mohindra

Punjab Government initiates free of cost mortuary van services: Brahm Mohindra

Nabaz-e-Punjab Bureau, Chandigarh, June 11:
Stating this here today Health Minister Punjab, Mr.Brahm Mohindra said that all the government hospitals have been directed to provide mortuary van to family of deceased free of cost . A form has got to be filled by the attendants to assess and keep in record whether the relatives/attendants of the deceased have adequate arrangement for transporting the dead body.
Minister also said that the It has been brought to the notice of state government that till now there was no provision of providing mortuary van in the government hospitals of state. He said that in case of unavailability of mortuary van, the family members were helpless and had to face a pathetic situation. He said that similar incident was noticed in Jalandhar around one month ago, when a person carried his father’s dead body on the rehri to go to his residence.
After that when he enquired the hospital administration about this particular incident and asked as to why hospital didn’t provide vehicle to family member of deceased. The Hospital administration told that there was no such provision and neither the state government had ever issued order to provide the vehicle in such cases.

Taking a serious note of this unfortunate incident , Health Minister has issued required instructions in this regard to transport the dead body to the residence of the deceased. He said that in case the relatives/ attendants of the dead person inform that they don’t have adequate arrangements then financial assistance up to Rs.500 would also be given to the family for making arrangement for carrying the dead body from the outside ( private operator).

Mr. Mohindra also said that in all the cases, a new white sheet free of cost for wrapping the dead body would be ensured.This would also be applicable in case of unclaimed dead bodies brought by the police for postmortem. He said that all expenses i.e. financial assistance as well as cost of bed sheet would be borne from out of the user charges of the hospital. In case, the hospital do not have adequate user charges, the funds would be provided from the emergency revolving fund of the PHSC on the reimbursement bases but immediately expenses have got to be made by the hospital, said Mr.Mohindra.

He said he believed that this ambitious move of the state government will also inspire the others state to take action regarding availability of mortuary van in government hospitals.