Patients, corpses share ward over lack of mortuary

Seeking treatmeant. Some of the patients at the out-patient department wait for doctors to attend to them in Kangulumira Health Centre IV, Kayunga District at the weekend. PHOTO BY TAUSI NAKATO

What you need to know:

  • Capacity. The health centre, currently serves as a district hospital following the ongoing renovation at Kayunga Hospital. It receives between 150 and 200 patients on a daily basis from the districts of Kayunga, Buikwe and Jinja districts.

Patients at Kangulumira Health Centre IV in Kangulumira Sub-cunty, Kayunga District share a ward with corpses due to lack of a mortuary.

When a patient passes on, the body is kept within the ward, Ms Rose Nandaula, a caretaker, said describing the situation as ‘panicky’ and ‘harrowing’.

“We were not at ease in this room when a person died; my daughter was visibly shaken and traumatised because the corpse was on the next bed,” she said at the weekend.

Mr Moses Ssendaula, another caretaker, alleged that the hospital staff leave bodies in the wards until they are collected by their relatives.

“All the people who die here are covered with blankets and they remain in the wards until their relatives claim the bodies.

“The situation becomes more complex when some bodies spend one to two days unclaimed,’’ he added.
Ms Joan Namusoke, who was attending to her nephew, said she had failed to recover after going through the trauma of having shared a ward with the dead.

“It is hard for my nephew to recover while sleeping next to a corpse, the experience is bad and there is need for intervention,” she said.

A medical officer, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of being victimised, said the working conditions at the health centre are ‘dangerous’ to the health of staff and patients.

“When you are treating a patient and you have a dead body just by the corner, you will not feel comfortable,’’ she said.

Mr Joseph Yiga Musoke, a senior clinical officer at the facility, confirmed they don’t have a mortuary.

“When a patient comes to the hospital, he or she comes with two options; to either cure or die. I cannot chase away a patient who is likely to die because of lack of a mortuary. When the patient dies, we just cover the body until the owners pick it,’’ he said.

Mr Yiga added that lacking a mortuary has put the lives of patients at risk, besides enduring the trauma.

“The health centre has no essentials such as refrigerators used in preserving the bodies, so patients are exposed to the bad odour,” he explained.

According to Mr Yiga, the issue was raised to the District Health Officer (DHO) for intervention but nothing has been done.

Mr Fred Baseke, the Ntenjeru South MP, who sits on the Parliamentary Health Committee, said he will raise the issue on the floor of the House.

The Kayunga DHO, Dr Ahmed Matovu, said the district is financially incapacitated to construct a mortuary at the health centre.

“Plans are underway to build a mortuary, but our budget is small, but if we get enough money, we shall construct it,’’ he said.

Similar challenge
In September, the management at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital came up with fees for mortuary fridge services.

Dr Nathan Onyachi, the director of the hospital, said they would charge Shs50,000 per night for a body of a person who dies from the hospital wards and Shs100,000 for those who die from outside the facility.

“We would have made this service [mortuary fridge service] free, but we have to meet the costs of electricity and water," he said.