Burundi 'detains' poor patients

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Burundian hospitals are forcibly detaining patients unable to pay their bills, human rights groups say.

Hundreds of people had been held against their will over the past few years, New York-based Human Rights Watch and a Burundi group said.

They said in some cases hospitals refused them further care, forcing them to vacate beds for paying patients.

Their report urged the government to order the release of those detained and to improve health care access.

Burundi is one of the world's poorest countries and is recovering from years of civil war.

'Exaggeration'

In the report entitled A High Price to Pay, the human rights groups say that patients who fail to pay their bills are kept under guard and prohibited from leaving the hospital grounds.

I was in seventh grade in school but now I am not going to school any more. My family cannot pay the bill Felix, 13 years old

"Detaining poor patients because they can't pay a bill punishes the poor and violates international human rights law," Human Rights Watch's Juliane Kippenberg said.

One of those interviewed was 13-year-old Felix M, who has been detained at Prince Regent Charles Hospital for over a year after recovering from a traffic accident.

"I was in seventh grade in school but now I am not going to school any more. Now I am healed... My family cannot pay the bill. I have been told that I cannot leave unless the bill is paid," he said.

Government health official Jean Paul Nyarushatsi told AP news agency there had been detentions but said the report was an exaggeration.

"We used to have many such cases in the past, which is quite normal in a country in war as people get poorer," he said.

"But four months ago, after the president declared free health care for children under five years and women giving birth, the number diminished more than 50%."

Field research for the report was carried out in six Burundian hospitals between January and June 2005.

HRW says, however, that hospitals were ill-prepared for the subsequent influx of pregnant women and sick children and the it has severely strained hospital resources.

It added that the new measure did not provide relief for other poor patients who continue to be detained.