A Georgetown Hospital mortuary assistant was dismissed from duty on Friday after allegedly pelting his toolbox at a funeral parlour tout on Tuesday following an altercation over a body that was taken to the mortuary.

Stabroek News was told that police had to get involved in the matter and assault charges were subsequently laid against the two who are scheduled to appear in court shortly. The tout sustained injuries during the incident.

Contacted on Friday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the hospital Michael Khan said that an investigation was launched into the incident and it was subsequently recommended by the Human Resources Department that the man be dismissed.

This newspaper was reliably informed that the issue arose after the father of a 14-year-old accident victim gave the mortician $1,000. The two know each other.

The mortician later handed a portion of the money to a porter and this apparently angered the tout. The tout demanded a portion of the money.

The two were standing at the enquiries desk in the mortuary and after an exchange of words and pointing fingers in each others’ faces, the mortician, according to reports, picked up his tool box and threw it in the tout’s direction. She was struck on the head.

This newspaper was told that a supervisor attached to the institution’s internal security later came and took the two to the Alberttown Police Station where statements were taken before they were both sent away.

However, the police held the two the following day and slapped them each with an assault charge.

Stabroek News understands that the woman touts for a popular city funeral parlour and would be at the mortuary every day trying to solicit persons.

Asked to comment on touting which has been an ongoing problem at the hospital’s mortuary for years, Khan said that would be better addressed by Director of Administrative Services Leslie Cadogan.

New policies
for touting

When contacted by telephone on Monday, Cadogan told this newspaper that touting is something that the institution has been trying its best to prevent by speaking regularly to their guards and having patrols.

“As far as we (the administration) is concerned this is illegal. We don’t want persons coming into the compound to solicit persons who have just lost relatives… We don’t want the touts using the hospital’s facilities as their market place”, Cadogan stated.

He further told this newspaper that they have been pleading with their security guards to be alert and prevent such persons from entering the compound. They must have the necessary documentation to show that they work with a particular parlour.

The administration has since put new policies in place where the public safety supervisors and officers (internal security) are patroll-ing the compound regularly.

Cadogan stated that last Tuesday’s incident is the first in which an employee has been involved in a fight with a tout. In times gone by he said the touts would fight among each other.

Asked if the punishment handed down to the mortician was not too harsh, he responded that “you cannot be on official duty and allow yourself to get carried away… You have to control yourself”.

Cadogan confirmed that the incident was sparked by a body that was taken there for a post mortem.

According to him, the tout saw the mortuary assistant speaking to the father of the deceased and became upset because she thought “he was working against her”. The employee and the man grieving relatives were friends.

He said that there was an exchange of words between the two and the employee became “annoyed and aggressive and that should not be”.

It was later pointed out that touting is not only rampant at the mortuary but also the vendors are managing to slip into the compound to ply their trade, which is against the hospital’s regulations.

Khan had told this newspaper  last Friday that touting involves collusion between the touts and the staff at the hospital, something that is difficult to prevent.

He said he has never received any reports from relatives of persons who have died about being harassed by touts.

Khan pointed out that a security guard is placed in the compound but he is not always in the area where the morgue is located.

The whole issue is to be looked at, at a management level next week and based on recommendations a security guard may be permanently placed at the mortuary.

Concern

A driver attached to a funeral home in Linden told this newspaper recently that touting at the Georgetown Hospital has gotten out of hand and he is very concerned about the situation.

The man said that he is totally against the practice, pointing out that people’s choice of where they want their loved ones to go must be respected.

He said that sometimes he has to journey to Georgetown to uplift bodies and there are always persons touting there. The man stressed that the hospital has to put stricter measures in place to curb this practice in order to make persons more comfortable in their time of grief and not let them be subjected to harassment.

In relation to Tuesday’s incident, the man said that in spite of what had transpired the tout is still at the mortuary.

“I plan to complain to the hospital next week. This thing needs to be taken more seriously,” the man added.

Meanwhile, a woman attached to a city funeral home also expressed her concern over the touting practice at the hospital which she said has been going on for years now.

She was quick to point out that it is something that is not condoned by the hospital’s administration as when she reports it steps are taken immediately.

“They would take steps but there is a lot of money that is passed so once the guard leaves, the touts would return,” she said.

The woman told Stabroek News that the entire situation is distressing because the touts would “bad talk” other funeral homes and offer cheaper prices to the persons they try to solicit.

She said in most cases “the talk” is just to get the body to that particular funeral home. In some cases they would even talk ill of the hospital’s mortuary giving persons the impression that the standards are not good and the body has to be removed immediately.

The touts, she said, would sit in the enquiries office, so sometimes persons going there get the impression that they are working there. Others wear a badge with the name of a city funeral parlour printed on it.

“These touts are vicious… They have a well collaborated network,” she said while recounting to this newspaper the many encounters she had with the touts who number about nine.

The woman said that this is an issue that needs to be highlighted publicly because one of the touts operates at the Guyana Funeral Home in Alberttown which has been closed for several years now.

According to her, there is no fridge there but rather a cooler system and that is where the bodies are stored.

“They convince people that the operation is secure but it is not. They really manipulate people,” she stressed.

She compared the touting at the mortuary to what happens at the minibus parks around the city and told Stabroek News it is a matter that needs to be addressed because someone will eventually be killed.