The body of a patient was kept for 16 hours in the female medicine ward of NRS Medical College and Hospital on Saturday, causing discomfort to other patients.

Manju Das, who was admitted with ovarian cancer, died at 7pm on Saturday but was removed at 11am on Sunday because her family members could not be contacted.

“We knew she was dead when a nurse covered the body with a white sheet at 11pm on Saturday. But no one came to remove the body. It was very uncomfortable for us,” said a patient admitted in the same ward.

“My wife could not sleep all night,” said Falguni Banerjee, a patient’s husband.

“According to rule, we have to issue a note with the time when the heart stops. The death certificate is issued four hours later and only after that is the body removed. The norm is to wait for the patient’s family to be present in case of a natural death,” said L.K. Ghosh, the medical superintendent of the hospital.

“The residential address they had filled in was incomplete. So we could not contact them,” Ghosh added.

“The authorities should have informed us earlier. They did not try hard to contact us,” said Bimal, Das’s son.