A new refrigeration system that was installed at Port Kaituma morgue, in Region One last November, worked for only two weeks before it broke down, making funeral arrangements even harder for grieving families.
Regional Executive Officer Nigel Fisher yesterday confirmed that the facility at Port Kaituma has been out of order for some time, but denied that it was since last November. Fisher, in a telephone interview from the North West District, told Stabroek News that the refrigeration system encountered a problem and a technician was sent to rectify it.
He was not in a position to say if this was done and asked this newspaper to make contact with the Chief Executive Office of the Port Kaituma Hospital today.
Speaking to this newspaper, main opposition APNU MP and Port Kaituma resident Richard Allen said that there were two corpses at the morgue in May and ice had to be used to “keep” the bodies. He noted that the purchase of ice and formalin is very expensive for many families.
According to Allen, if the death of the person is being investigated by the police, it is the police’s responsibility to look after the body until the post-mortem examination is done.
However, he said that in spite of this, relatives are being asked to help with the storage of the remains. He recalled that when he entered the morgue, which remains without a staff, it was clear that the system was not functioning. He said he made checks with officials at the hospital located across the road and they too said that the system was out of order.
Allen said residents made several reports about the situation to no avail and he had similar luck. Hospital staff, he added, also mentioned the situation in their monthly reports.
“It is unfair and unjust to this nation as a whole,” he said, while adding that taxpayers’ money is being wasted since the morgue was built by a donor organisation through a grant that has to be repaid.
He added that the fact that the refrigeration system only worked for two weeks says a lot. Allen said too that up to now, no one can provide information on the cost of the system.
The refrigeration system was installed several weeks after it arrived at the morgue. Fisher, who at the time was the acting REO, had told Stabroek News that it was uninstalled due to the absence of an external cooling component.
The morgue was built about seven years ago by the government in collaboration with the Caribbean Develop-ment Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency, at a cost of some $9.6 million.
The arrangement, according to what Stabroek News was told, was that the government was responsible for the furnishing of the morgue. Over the years, the facility had been left in a state of disrepair, with cracks in the walls and grass in the compound growing taller than the building.
Persons who were forced to utilize the morgue detailed horror stories of how they had to spend as much as $10,000 per day to buy ice and purchase formalin to ensure that their relatives’ bodies did not decompose.
There were instances, this newspaper was told, when relatives turned up to find body parts missing. There was a single wooden box to store corpses. In the event that there was more than one body at a given time, the others were placed on the floor of the building.
Matthew’s Ridge
Meanwhile, at Matthew’s Ridge, where there is no morgue, the situation is worse. Relatives do not keep corpses for more than a day because of the absence of a refrigeration system and ice.
Fisher told this newspaper that there is a proposal to extend a building there to allow for the installation of a freezer sometime this year.
According to Allen, $10 million has been set aside for the construction of a morgue in the area. He said corpses are now kept in a building in the hospital compound. A box is used to store the bodies, he added.
Stabroek News was told that ice is not produced on a large scale like in Port Kaituma. Allen added that if the corpse is part of a police case, it is sometimes transferred to Port Kaituma which is a drive of between 2 ½ and 4 hours away. He told this newspaper of instances where corpses started to decay.
Allen said the only functioning morgue is at Mabaruma. “That cannot serve the whole of the North West,” he said, adding that to get from Port Kaituma to Mabaruma is very costly as transportation is only by water or air.
