Ministry of Health to purchase freezers for storing corpses that families refuse to claim and funeral homes refuse to store

In another attempt to increase its capacity to store dead bodies, the
Government is looking to purchase freezers capable of holding up to six
corpses.
 

This reportedly has become necessary, as the relatives of many deceased
persons are refusing to claim the bodies, and the funeral homes are also
refusing to accept them unless a family member accepts responsibility for
burial expenses.
 
Reportedly, during this week’s Cabinet meeting, the chief pathologist was
invited to address the issue of autopsies and the state of the government-
owned mortuary on the Holberton Hospital compound. 
  
According to the Cabinet Notes, “When a person dies in the public hospital or
on the streets, and the dead body is not claimed, the responsibility for burial
becomes the taxpayers.”
 
Therefore the Ministry of Health, under whose portfolio the Central Board of
Health (CBH) falls, is looking to strengthen its storage capacity through the
purchase of these freezers.
 
Once received, they will be placed in the mortuary building on the old
Holberton Hospital compound, where autopsies are usually carried out.

However, the Notes add, the acquisition of the freezers will also enable post-
mortem examinations to be undertaken at the funeral homes.

The Government’s last attempt at mass storage of dead bodies was during the
height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, a freezer container
donated by the United States had issues with its cooling unit, which
subsequently went down.
 
Sources told REAL that the corpses stored inside then began decaying at a
rapid rate – in fact, they liquified –since they could not be kept at a particular
temperature.
 
This forced officials to bury the remains quickly – in some cases, without
notifying relatives.
 
Reports say that the container still cannot be used, as the parts it has needed,
since 2022, have not been purchased.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet is hoping to address the issue of patients being
abandoned by relatives at the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre.
 
The Executive claims that a number of healthy but elderly persons have been
left at the hospital and cannot be discharged because they have nowhere to go.
According to the Cabinet Notes, this is a worrying trend; therefore, families
are being encouraged “to love and to care for their elderly parents and
grandparents.”