If a hospital's management were to claim that a patient's family members or the guardian, abandoned the patient at the hospital's building, without paying the hospital's medical bill or invoice for the rendered healthcare goods and services, then it is entirely the hospital's responsibility to immediately call the police, for reporting the details of that type of an issue and situation.
The only reasonable and legal options available for a hospital in the event of a guardian not paying the given medical bills or invoices, for goods and services faithfully rendered by the hospital, due to the inability or unwillingness on part of the guardian, are to:
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firstly discharge the patient from the hospital into the care of the guardian and then to immediately call the police (and file a report with the hospital's business insurance company), or,
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send a legal notice for demand of payments to the Consumer's address, as per the terms and conditions of a proper invoice, or,
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write-off the unrecoverable debt owed by a Consumer to the hospital as merely a loss to business income.
Choosing to use the illegal option of keeping the patient as a hostage, or as a piece of collateral property for gaining leverage over the patient's guardian or next-of-kin, especially for the purposes of "debt collection", is certainly a punishable offense, irrespective of the Consumers' willingness or ability to pay a given bill (or an invoice). Such offenses and violations are indeed being deliberately committed by employees and contractors of various hospitals in India. In fact, wrongfully confining or restraining a patient for compelling the person or their next-of-kin, to pay any kind of "fees," is a violation of the Fundamental Rights to life and liberty of human beings, as defined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
For these reasons, there is absolutely nothing inadvertent or accidental on part of the hospital management when they commit such a systematic violation of holding patients (or dead bodies or biological samples) as collateral, using the hospital's premeditated policies and practices. More importantly, when such culpable activities are committed by a hospital's or a clinic's hired members, via systematic policies and coordinated enterprise resources, then, such a crime becomes an organized crime.
So, I am well within my rights to start an advertisement campaign using print and social media channels, in the interests of Consumer Awareness and as a Public Service Announcement, with a message promoting Consumerism while effectively marketing that:
If any persons happen to visit a hospital in India, especially an "Accredited Hospital", then those persons are entitled to immediately leave the hospital after receiving post-paid treatments as a patient (or as a next-of-kin along with their family member) without paying the bill, if the given bill is not a proper invoice with saliently printed terms and conditions for how to settle the pending or disputed amount.
The obligation and responsibility of utilizing legal methods for collecting any owed medical fees from a Consumer, for a hospital's rendered healthcare products and services, is only on the hospital. And that too, The Law necessitates that in the interests of justice and fair play, the debt collection methods and instruments utilized by the corporate entity be safe, and clean of every possible form of harassment, fraudulence, or tricks conducted against the Consumer. This is because every form of harassment, hurdles, dark patterns, and belittlement thrust upon the Consumer is an offense and a violation, of the Consumer's rights to "just, equitable, and fair" business transactions.
The wretched organizational culture prevalent among various corporate hospitals and clinics in India, of holding patients (or dead bodies or biological samples), as a means to obtain leverage over Consumers for collecting any amount of material gains or for revenue generation, only produces unearned incomes for those hospitals and clinics.
If any Judicial Body or a Court of Law were to allow the existing trade practices used by healthcare providers, of abusing human beings as a collateral property or as a leverage against Consumers, rather than curtailing and punishing that type of abusive behaviour, then all other corporations including educational institutes will be able to use this type of an unethical practice to circumvent laws concerning "abduction of vulnerable persons via wrongful confinement and restraint." That is why, such a deleterious culture currently prevalent within India's healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, needs to be thoroughly and immediately expunged.