'If you can't pay don't have babies'

JAKARTA: The husband of Rodoyana Siburian, 30, reported the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) to the police on Wednesday, accusing the hospital management of holding his wife and baby hostage until he paid the bills.

Pamompoan Samosir, 40, a resident of Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta, said that his wife delivered their baby at the hospital on May 24. The hospital bill they had paid was about Rp 3.27 million.

He said that he had shown the hospital the letter from the subdistrict administration certifying that he was poor and could not pay the bill.

"But one of the nurses just said that I should not have had a child if I could not afford the bills," he was quoted as saying by Detikcom.

His lawyer Nia Yuniarsih from the Legal Aid Institute on Health (LBH Kesehatan) deplored the hospital's policies on providing health services for the poor. -- JP