Dear Editor,
Recently my dearest mother died in Guyana at one of the leading private hospitals. Before the funeral parlour could uplift the body a relative had to be present to identify that body. I chose to stay for the parlour’s hearse to arrive and when the door to the hospital’s morgue was opened I was literally shocked. We were greeted with a stench and a few flies that were happily buzzing around.
My mom’s body had already started to swell. When reality struck I asked the hospital’s attendant what was going on with the obvious hot and humid conditions in the morgue. His response was, “You ain’t see the air conditioner wukking?” To this bright, young lad I simply pointed out that the fan was working but there was no cool air; in short there was nothing cool in this facility. It must be noted that the parlour staff pointed out to me that this was the normal condition of the morgue and were not sure what I was upset about.
I was quite livid and proceeded to speak with someone in management. I did manage to speak with the CEO who promised to investigate and report. This was done and the CEO did admit that there were some unusual circumstances that weekend and, in short, things would be back to normal and my experience was not the norm.
It seems obvious that I was being placated by the CEO in view of the parlour’s comments on the usual state of affairs of the morgue. In view of this demeaning experience of the treatment of a dead I would like to ask the new Minister of Health the following questions:
Which arm of the Ministry of Health is responsible for ensuring that standards are maintained in all the morgues in the country?
How often are inspections done?
Are there back-up generators in all morgues?
This is not a political issue but an appeal for all concerned to work to ensure there is dignity for the dead.
Yours faithfully,
V Dyal
