Port Kaituma, in the North West District of Region One and Lethem, in Region Nine are both still without functioning morgues, according to residents.
At Port Kaituma, a freezer was delivered about three weeks ago. Residents say that it has not been installed nor has the building been wired, but Regional Chairman Fermin Singh is saying differently.
When contacted, Singh told Stabroek News that based on the information he received, the Port Kaituma Morgue is in operation. He told this newspaper in a brief telephone interview that the freezer was installed about a month and a half ago.
“I got information that they hooked it up,” he said, while noting it was purchased by the government. He noted its importance, since there are instances where relatives of the deceased have to await post-mortem examinations before burial is allowed. He pointed out there are not a lot of corpses coming to the facility on a regular basis.
Singh also said the installation of the freezer would ease the burden on relatives of the dead having to purchase ice for storage. “So it would be very economical to families,” he said.
However, resident Richard Allen said that the freezer was placed in the facility in parts. He added that weeks later, it is still in there and residents are uncertain when it would be installed as the building has not yet been wired.
Allen said he was shocked that so much time had passed and the freezer had not been installed. “I think the purpose of it coming in was to install it immediately. I think this has not been done yet because they trying to play with people’s minds,” he said.
According to Allen, it was after this publication again highlighted the issue last month that regional officials started saying that the freezer would be installed. He said that at no point was there a meeting with the residents to discuss the situation. “All we heard was that a barge was coming in with it. When the barge arrived, then is when we knew the freezer was here,” he said.
The resident noted that they felt relieved that it had arrived but the questions started to circulate about when it would be assembled and installed and up until now the residents are still waiting. He said that regional officials were questioned but had no information to give.
“Residents will not continue like this. Action will have to be taken because we will not continue like this. Right now thankfully we don’t have any bodies,” Allen said.
He said that the last corpse that came to the morgue stayed there for five days and the police had to purchase ice to keep it until the pathologist flew to the area to do the post-mortem examination. He said that even though the situation is heartbreaking, residents should be applauded for ensuring there is a steady supply of ice. A bucket of ice, he said, sells for at least $1500.
“It is not fair for the police to be spending taxpayers’ money to buy ice to keep the dead. That is why the region should have ensured that the morgue was furnished immediately after construction instead of having it there like a white elephant just falling apart,” he said.
Allen also noted that the area around the building is still bushy and at one time the medex had to use her own money to clean the hospital compound and the morgue, which is he described as unfair.
Based on reports reaching the Stabroek News, the morgue was built seven years ago by the government in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency as a cost of $9.6 million. Since its construction, it was never equipped with refrigeration facilities or staff. As a result, residents were forced to store the bodies in wooden boxes that were on the floor of the facility.
Stabroek News first highlighted the situation last August.
Square one
Meanwhile, at Lethem, resident Carl Parker told this newspaper that the morgue has been non-functioning since August last year.
He said that three unsuccessful attempts were made at the regional level to rectify a problem with the refrigeration system. He explained that it would work for several days then “back to square one again.”
Stabroek News contacted the Regional Chairman Clarendo Lucas, but he could not comment on the situation as he was in Georgetown. Attempts to get answers from other officials were unsuccessful.
Parker said that the community had regular deaths and each time their relatives had to find ice, most of which is purchased across the border in Brazil.
He noted that last August a resident known as ‘Iceman’ was killed in an accident. Relatives, not realising that the morgue was not working, placed the body there. When they returned four or five days later, this newspaper was told, they were shocked at its state. The man had to be buried immediately.
“It was really, really embarrassing for the relatives because a lot of residents would have wanted to go to that funeral,” he said, while calling on the authorities to fix the problem urgently.
