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Corpses left uncollected in mortuaries in a number government hospitals in the Western Region have left many of the hospital administrators in a dilemma.

According to some of the hospital administrators, some of the bodies have been lying in the mortuaries for more than a decade. Many of the dead were said to be victims of road accidents. Others were mentally deranged persons sent to the hospitals by the police and were yet to be identified for collection by their families. 

Ultimatum

Under the circumstance, a number of the hospitals have given up to a week’s ultimatum to the public to identify the bodies for collection else they would be forced to carry out mass burials.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Deputy Administrator of the Effia-Nkwantah Regional Hospital, one of the hospitals affected, Mr Harbib Ganiyu, said the situation was currently very bad.

He said the mortuary at the hospital had close to 50 unclaimed bodies, many of which were persons who were destitute and others who were brought in by the police but were yet to be identified and claimed. 

Stench

“The situation has resulted in an offensive smell around the hospital such that relations of other dead people no longer want to use our facility. As such, we have written to the assembly of our preparedness to perform a mass burial,” he said.

Mr Ganiyu said the position in which the hospital found itself presently was making it lose revenue since the uncollected bodies were occupying space.

“People who arrive with the bodies of their dead relatives decide not to use our facility any longer because of the foul smell that emanates from the uncollected bodies,” he said.

Mr Ganiyu said the situation was also not good for the health of the people who work at the mortuary and urged families who have lost their relatives to come forward and claim them. 

Health Directorate

The Regional Health Directorate has confirmed the disturbing situation that the hospitals were facing. It said it would be liaising with the district assemblies to carry out mass burials of the unclaimed bodies.

Cost and legalities

According to Dr Atsu Dordor, the Deputy Director in charge of Clinical Services, there were processes that the hospitals had to follow before the bodies were buried since it involved human bodies, cost and legal issues.

“Those bodies belonged to people even if they were destitutes and so they cannot just be buried without going through legal processes,” he said.

That aside, he said the cost of burial also had to be taken into consideration and that was why district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies were being involved.  

The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Capt. Anthony Cudjo (retd), confirmed that he had received a letter from  the regional directorate of health seeking the assistance of the assembly for the conduct of a mass burial.