According to the association, twenty (20) of its workers died in 2021 alone, and their deaths may be linked to the insanitary conditions under which they work in the various mortuaries across the country.
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20 mortuary workers died in 2021 alone, we’re used like slaves – Association
The Mortuary Workers’ Association of Ghana has bemoaned that its members are used like slaves, and they die in misery without anything to show for sacrificing their lives to attend to corpses.
Insanitary conditions at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital mortuary
The General Secretary for the association, Richard Kofi Jordan, told Accra-based Starr FM’s Francis Abban on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, that mortuaries make a lot of revenue, but the morticians who sacrifice their lives to do the shunned job are not rewarded properly.
"This is where I have a problem. Last year alone we lost almost 20 of our members and it is possible that it’s through infection and these types of things that is making them die. So, it’s difficult, especially being their General Secretary. It is actually a nightmare for me," Jordan cried.
The association’s lamentations follow a widely-praised report by Godwin Asediba, a journalist at GHOne Television, which exposed hitherto unknown insanitary conditions at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital’s mortuary.
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Mr. Jordan said: "Ghanaians have to appreciate that people are not thinking about our welfare at all. They are only interested in how they can milk people and put money into their pocket. Because it doesn’t make sense for a whole facility of this nature to be in this mess in the 21st Century. It doesn’t make sense, this is slavery to my understand.
"For over 35 to 40-years the situation hasn’t changed and is worsening and it is not only Korle-Bu that we have such a mess. I have always advocated maintenance. Some people have got their own idea of protecting themselves and job security forgetting that they are exposing others to health and safety issues.
"Because workers there are paid by the government, it is not Korle-Bu or any other person who pays them. So, what do you use the money for? This is my position."
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He went further to disclose how some people have been advocating the privatization of mortuaries in Ghana for better management.
"Some people have got the idea that we cannot be able to manage it so we can give out and while they are still at home they can still be making some money. Look, we are becoming sick of this type of leadership."
The video report by Asediba, which has got many Ghanaians reacting and calling for urgent action to remedy the appalling situation, shows dead bodies lying on the bare floor, gutters within the facility choked with solid and liquid waste believed to have emanated from the corpses, and flies hovering on them all over the Korle-Bu morgue.
When the reporter spoke to the director of metro-public health at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Madam Florence, she described the situation as a worrying reality.
According to her, the unhygienic conditions prevalent at the mortuary pose health risks to the workers.
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