A grave breach of ethics

The Star

17-07-2025

PETALING JAYA: It was a most disturbing experience for a woman who wanted to get an ambulance for her husband who had just collapsed.
Madam Wong, as she wanted to be known, said she dialled 999 and the operator guided her through cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) while an ambulance was dispatched to her home in Kajang.
As her 58-year-old husband lay on the floor, silent and breathless, her phone rang. Thinking it was the paramedics, she answered the call.
'I'm calling from the hospital,' came the polite voice of a man speaking in a Chinese dialect.
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'I'm an undertaker. Would you be interested in our funeral packages?'
Wong was stunned. 'I was trying to save him,' she recalled. 'And someone was already trying to bury him.'
She screamed into the phone: 'I don't want a hearse. I want an ambulance!'
By the time paramedics arrived, it was too late.
'I'll never forget that call – not just because it came too soon, but because it showed how broken things have become,' she lamented.
Wong's story is not an isolated case.
In December last year, five hospital employees were accused in a Seremban Sessions Court of accepting payment of RM600 to RM2,250 from two mortuary service providers as a 'reward' for supplying information about the next of kin of the deceased.
Businesses offering funeral services have often been linked to public hospitals' forensic department and mortuary support staff.
A Health Ministry circular dated April 21 stressed that hospital staff are prohibited from receiving any gift, contribution, payment or inducement that could be considered a bribe in managing deceased patients.
'This includes providing information or personal details of the deceased to external parties or individuals involved in funeral management,' it added.
An undertaker, who has been in the industry for three decades, claimed that hospital staff used to make 'good money' from their 'side business'.
According to him, the rates offered to the hospital staff would differ between Indian and Chinese undertakers.
'Indian businesses would offer a lesser amount of perhaps RM250 to RM300. The Chinese undertakers would give at least RM600 for each 'notification',' he said.
'Chinese funeral packages are far more expensive. That's why they can afford to pay the hospital staff a higher rate.'
The cost of paying the hospital staff for the 'deal' is subsequently transferred to the client when they are billed for the funeral services, he added.
However, a funeral services company director, who declined to be named, pointed out that the situation had changed after the Covid-19 pandemic and that the 'lucrative side business' of these hospital staff had come to a halt.
'The way remains are managed has changed drastically,' he said.
The undertaker also said most companies have now turned to digital and social media marketing.
'Today, 90% of our business comes from our digital marketing efforts. Only about 10% comes from referrals by hospital support staff,' he said.
This was unlike previous times, when about 60% of their business came from hospital employees who gave the undertakers the name of the deceased and contact number of the next of kin, he said.
Another source affirmed this, saying that the bargaining power has now shifted to the service providers.
The undertakers spoken to concurred that public hospitals should adopt the practice of private hospitals, which place brochures of funeral service providers at selected areas in their premises.
Yet, there also remain cases of 'freelancers' who would 'reward' hospital workers to get cases for big funeral services companies.
'These freelancers would hang around the mortuary. They are paid commissions by the big players,' another source claimed.
A bereavement consultant claimed that some undertakers would offer commissions to hospital staff or intermediaries in exchange for securing clients.
As someone who has been in the industry since 2019, he described it as a competitive business.
To protect his clients, he would advise families never to hand over the deceased's identity card to anyone other than his verified service team.
'There have been cases where people pretended to be from a certain company but turned out to be just regular undertakers. That's when complications arise,' he said, adding that families are often caught off guard by how quickly some undertakers show up.
'They somehow even know the correct hospital ward number.'