One of the most emotive things for bereaved families, especially the poor, is the detention of the bodies of their loved ones due to hospital bills. In many cases, the patients will have succumbed after draining their families’ resources, and they cannot bury them until money is found somehow to clear the pending hospital bills.

It is also not unusual for the crooked managers and owners of some health facilities to inflate bills. A death in the family is painful, but being denied a chance to bury the dead delays the needed closure for many families.

However, the majority of the hospitals struggle to get their bills paid, and the callous detaining of bodies is something many would wish never happened. They, of course, incur expenses to be able to provide these services. These include procuring medicines and equipment.

High Court Judge Nixon Sifuna’s ruling that hospitals have no right to withhold bodies and use them as security until medical bills are paid will come as a huge relief to many families. The detention of bodies traumatises the bereaved kin.

According to Justice Sifuna, this informal action has become a habit and has gained so much ground despite being illegal. On the other hand, the hospitals cannot provide these vital services unless they are paid for. In this particular case, the family owed the hospital Sh3.3 million. Now, that is not pocket change.

And the judge is quite right that such debts should be pursued through demand letters or litigation. But what if all hospitals demanded payments up front, as some are doing today, thanks to the new Social Health Authority crisis?

It is unfair and inhuman to blackmail, embarrass, traumatise, and coerce families into submitting to monetary demands by hospitals for bodies that should be disposed of respectfully.

Hospitals must be stopped from resorting to such draconian actions that cause a lot of pain for bereaved families.