safety steps

CABINET NOTES – The Cabinet invited the Chief Pathologist to address the issue of autopsies and the state of the government-owned mortuary. 

The principal reliance for the disposal of cadavers lies with the two funeral homes–providing the dead are claimed by a family.

When a person dies in the public hospital or on the streets, and the dead is not claimed, the responsibility for burial becomes the taxpayers’.

A larger number of family members are refusing to claim their dead, and the funeral homes do not accept the human remains for storage.

Hence, the Ministry of Health, under whose portfolio falls the Central Board of Health, is seeking to strengthen the storage capability.

A decision was made to purchase freezers that will be placed in the mortuary building at the old Holberton Hospital that can accommodate up to six cadavers. Autopsies can also be carried out at that building, and on the properties of the funeral home.