Griya Husada Hospital vacated

SURABAYA: The dispute over a building occupied by Griya Husada Hospital at Jl. Bubutan Galur here has ended with the court decision to transfer ownership of the building.

Eviction of the hospital was conducted on Tuesday amid the cries of nurses and employees, following the reading of the city court and Supreme Court verdicts by a bailiff in front of the hospital's emergency unit.

The execution of the court verdict started with the relocation of 22 patients undergoing treatment in Griya Husada Hospital to Dr. Soetomo General Hospital.

Prior to the eviction, police closed Jl. Bubutan Galur to all vehicles except 20 trucks, which were assigned to carry medical equipment and supplies from the building to a warehouses in Margamulya Indah.

The sudden vacation of the hospital prompted an uproar from 100 hospital employees, mostly nurses. Two nurses screamed hysterically before collapsing unconscious. One woman, Maimunah, wept and moaned, saying that her one-year-old baby died because all of the nurses had panicked.

Griya Husada Hospital was established under the name of Mardi Santosa Hospital in 1931. A legal dispute between hospital management and Tommy Dje, an investor from Semarang, began one year ago after the hospital rejected sale of the property to Tommy, alleging that the 1994 transaction between him and the previous owner, the Western Indonesia Protestant Church, was illegal.

The city court and Supreme Court found in favor of Tommy in the dispute. (nur/sdt)