Woman held by hospital for failing to pay bills

JAKARTA (JP): A 53-year-old woman, who fainted in a courtroom last month while being tried and subsequently taken to hospital, has been prohibited from leaving the hospital because she is unable to pay the bill.

Nuraini was tried in the North Jakarta District Court on June 29 on charges of illegally occupying a house on Jl. Cilincing Raya, Koja, North Jakarta. The house is reportedly owned by a man named Putu Bagiada.

When prosecutor I Made Sudama started reading out the indictment, Nuraini collapsed unconscious in her chair. Judge Tapi Harahap then asked the prosecutor to take the suspect to the Sunter Agung hospital for treatment.

Eddy Liando, a doctor at the privately run hospital, said that Nuraini should be treated at the hospital until she is completely recovered.

On July 15, the doctor stated that Nuraini had been cured and could leave the hospital. However later the hospital administrators forbade the woman to leave as she was unable to pay the hospital bill.

The Sunter Agung hospital charged Nuraini Rp 2,000,000 (US$900) for a month's medical treatment.

Nuraini's lawyers, Waler Siahaan and Abu Mansyur from the government-sponsored Center for Legal Aid, urged Judge Tapi Harahap and prosecutor Made Sudama to pay the bill since it was them who decided to send the suspect to the private hospital instead of a state-run one.

If she had been treated at a state-run hospital she would not have been charged anything since it would then be the responsibility of the Pondok Bambu Correctional Institution, where the suspect was being temporarily detained.

As new lawyers are required to serve at the Center for Legal Aid without asking for any fees from their clients, her lawyers are paid by the government.

"The management of the Sunter Agung hospital said Nuraini cannot leave the hospital until she has paid the bill," Abu Mansyur said.

Because Nuraini cannot leave the hospital, the trial has been adjourned. "I have asked the judge about the date for the next trial session of my client, but there has been no answer up to now," Mansyur added.

Head of the North Jakarta District Court, Sumarjono, yesterday promised that his office would pay for Nuraini's treatment.

"The trial should go on and not be disrupted simply because of this unexpected case," he told The Jakarta Post.

Sumarjono added that the North Jakarta Prosecutor's Office should also bear responsibility for the medical costs.

"It is the prosecutor's office that detained the suspect and took her to court, so it should also take the responsibility," he stressed, adding that it was the first time he had seen such case.(29)