An elderly woman has been waiting at Denpasar’s Sanglah Hospital for the past two months for her family to pick her up, but they never come.
Rini Setyawati, 57 has been at Sanglah since August 10 this year when she was hospitalized for a stroke and diagnosed with a mental disorder.
Setywati has been cleared to go home, but the woman’s family never came back for her after dropping her off. The hospital claims to have repeatedly tried to contact the woman’s family, but to no avail.
Head Sanglah spokesman Dr. Kadek Naryantha says Setywati was supposed to be discharged on August 18, just eight days after she checked in.
Naryantha says the hospital is worried that Setywati could be contaminated with an illness from other patients, while they also need to free up the bed Setywati has been using so they can treat more patients.
It seems like the obvious reason (cold but possible) for the woman’s family ditching her could be about heavy accruing medical costs, but Naryantha says she is on insurance so that’s not the concern here.
Sanglah says they are confused what to do with the woman since they tried to apply for aid for her from the government as a displaced person, but since she still has a family, she could not be processed.
“We are confused what process to do, while the family does not want to come here. We hope that the family can coordinate with Sanglah. Can this patient be taken care of by her family or entrusted to a nursing home, and/or some other process moving forward,” Naryantha told Tribun Bali.
