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Bongo hospital keeps dead bodies in 'kiosk mortuary'
Dead bodies kept in there are normally prone to quick decomposition as a result of the heat. Some patients also eat close to the 'kiosk mortuary'
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The structure, without any cooling machine, was erected in 2004 and is expected to take in three bodies at a time, which are normally prone to quick decomposition as a result of the heat, Accra-based Starr FM reports.
“The zinc metal creates a lot of heat. Definitely, when you put somebody inside, considering the heat, by the time the person spends about 6 hours, 7 hours, 8 hours inside, the person may somehow start decomposing,” the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. William Gudu, told Accra-based Starr FM.
He added that “Once a corpse starts decomposing, it is prone for infection. And once a corpse starts to decompose, it will be attracting flies. Flies would go there and go to other people’s foods. You see all these people sitting here (pointing at patients and families sitting nearby), they eat here. The flies stand on their food when they are eating here. In case there is a corpse there which is having a trouble, the flies may be coming from there.”
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Dr Gudu explained that the ‘kiosk mortuary’ was erected to serve as a temporary answer to the unease patients suffered in battling with dead-body sights in the wards.
“The tension that goes around when somebody dies is what brought about this structure. I came and met it (the structure). When a patient dies, most of the clients or patients in the ward migrate out. Until the corpse is picked out, most of them would be outside.
“Supposing you get sick and you are admitted in the ward, and somebody dies on the next bed, what would run through your mind psychologically? The first thing that would run through your mind is the next person who would die- is it going to be me? So, most of them would move out. That was somehow the reason why this structure was created,” he said.
What are health experts saying?
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The Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, Noble Asakeya Alagskomah, has called on authorities to quickly organise a stakeholders’ conference over the issue.
“A mortuary is as important as a clinic or a hospital. Where to keep corpses is very, very important so that they don’t get decomposed- because they would pose health hazards to members of that health facility and the entire community, especially in terms of contagious diseases.
“I would appeal to the elite in Bongo, business men and women, opinion leaders, traditional authorities to quickly organise a stakeholders’ conference to address this critical issue,” he said.
On his part, the Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Abambire Bawa, has promised to provide the facility with solar panels for “lighting purposes”.
Meanwhile, a mini mortuary is under construction but at a slow pace due to financial constraints
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The project is believed to have been started by natives of Bongo in 2015 and it is designed to accommodate 12 bodies in air-conditioned apartments.
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