Sudden increase in deaths causes congestion at mortuary |18 March 2005

According to the acting director of the Clinical Laboratory, David Amédée, the number of natural deaths went up to 14 and this has put a lot of pressure on the mortuary which has chillers with the capacity to take nine bodies.

These deaths, Mr Amédée said, were of natural causes and involved mainly elderly people aged between 67 and 80 years.

He said that apart from the fact that funeral services are not being done during weekends, there is also a growing tendency of bodies being kept at the mortuary for four to five days thus causing a great burden on the existing facilities.

Mr Amédée also pointed out that as a result of the congestion, the preservation of bodies becomes complicated because this leads to a rotation system whereby bodies have to be placed in and out of cold storage around the clock.

This, he said, has also given rise to health concerns and therefore the Ministry of Health and Social Services is calling on families to bury their dead early.

Mr Amédée pointed out that the function of the mortuary was mainly to keep bodies chilled before a post-mortem is carried out, after which they are to be handed over to the family for immediate burial.
 
But unfortunately, he said, the facility has been used for the exposing of bodies for many days since private businesses are not offering chiller facilities.

Instead of investing in the expansion of the mortuary the ministry is calling on families to give their full cooperation by not keeping bodies too long at the mortuary before burial.

People are being encouraged to expose bodies at home or at the other private funeral parlours.

"We are also encouraging the private businesses to invest in other facilities like chillers," Mr Amédée said.

Meanwhile Mr Amédée has said that the situation is back to normal and that the congestion at the mortuary was temporary.