Grief being held to ransom at Northern Beaches Hospital

Controversial Northern Beaches Hospital is holding grieving families to ‘ransom’ by charging an unnecessary fee to release their loved one’s body, a funeral industry insider claims.

Controversial Northern Beaches Hospital is holding grieving families to “ransom” by charging an unnecessary fee to release their loved one’s body, a funeral industry insider claims.

The public-private partnership hospital is the only major hospital in NSW to still charge a $99 fee for a Cremation Risk Advice (CRA) certificate, the whistleblower said.

The fee – generally paid upfront by a mortuary service and then added to the family’s funeral bill – was abolished in NSW public hospitals over two years ago.

“This (hospital is) exploiting grieving families of people who unfortunately die at the hospital,” the industry insider said.

“They would rather make a profit rather than assisting a family that is dealing with funeral costs that are already extremely high in Sydney.”

Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest is still charging for a Cremation Risk Advice certificate two years after the fee was abolished in NSW public hospitals. Picture: NewsWire/Max Mason-Hubers

When someone dies in ­hospital and is to be cremated, a CRA and a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) are needed.

“The CRA is completed by the doctor to clarify some medical and clinical points about the deceased person, certifying them suitable for a cremation to take place,” the insider said.

“The MCCD requires quite a bit of information and probably takes the doctor up to one hour to complete depending on the cause of death. The CRA probably takes the doctor 10 to 15 minutes to complete.”

The MCCD is issued by all hospitals free of charge. When the public system scrapped the CRA charge, nearly all private hospitals followed suit according to the insider.

“NSW Health acknowledged that it was a completely unnecessary charge for families who had lost a loved one,” he said. “Yet when the funeral director attends the mortuary to collect a person from the Northern Beaches Hospital, they refuse to release the body until the $99 CRA fee is paid.”

Despite complaints from industry members that no other major hospital in NSW charges the $99 fee to grieving families, he said the hospital continued to stand by their “no payment, no release” rule.

“They argue that they are not a public hospital and not obliged to offer the CRA free of charge even though their website says they accept public and private patients.”

A spokesman for Northern Beaches Hospital, located in Frenchs Forest, said management was “currently reviewing its Cremation Risk Advice fee charges of $99” but claimed that “there is no requirement for the fee to be paid in order for a body to be released”.

The hospital has been plagued by controversy since its 2018 opening; this week it was revealed critical errors were made when a two-year-old boy died at its emergency department.

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