The Medical Social Welfare Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, has met with the family of the late Fatima Olamide, over an outstanding medical bill delaying the release of her corpse.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the unit had also given the family some concession and agreed to release the body on Tuesday (today).
Our correspondent had reported that Olamide died at LASUTH last Monday from a terminal illness after her family had spent about N1m.
Her body was, however, held at the hospital’s morgue over N860,000 outstanding bill out of which the family said they raised N200,000.
When asked on Saturday if the family could be given a concession, the LASUTH Chief Medical Director, Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, said the MSWU handled such matters.
Fabamwo, in a statement on Sunday by the hospital’s Public Affairs Officer, Olutayo Irantiola, further advised the bereaved family to meet the unit.
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The statement read in part, “We sympathise greatly with the family of the deceased who had a serious illness. May the good Lord give them the fortitude to bear the loss. We need to inform the family as well as the general public that all fees in LASUTH, as well as other state hospitals, are collected by an agency appointed by the state government.
No medical director has the authority to waive any hospital fees incurred by either the living or the dead. The family should have used the existing hospital avenues through the Medical Social Welfare Unit to upscale its challenge instead of running to the press, thereby scandalising the hospital for no just cause.”
The father of the deceased, Shamusideen Shobowale, told our correspondent on Monday that the matter had been resolved and the hospital had promised to release the body on Tuesday (today).
He said, “Some family members went to the welfare unit today (Monday) and they gave us a huge discount. We eventually paid N300,000 out of N860,000 and they said we could come for the corpse tomorrow (Tuesday). We are grateful for the intervention.”
