By Mildred Christian Saccoh in Makeni
Health authorities in Makeni are appealing to the central government to help provide support for the effective functioning of the only mortuary that is serving the entire northern region.
The mortuary which is situated in the Regional Government Hospital in Makeni City, serves all seven districts in the North and Northwest regions, and it currently has only one functioning refrigerator, which officials say is grossly inadequate to meet the demands of the population.
George Kamara, Head of the hospital mortuary, said lack of refrigerator is just one among many problems they are dealing with for the effective operation of the morgue, a situation he also said has been complicated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Kamara told Politico that they have been forced to overload the available refrigerator, at the risk of destroying it.
The refrigerator has three layers and therefore accommodates a maximum of three corpses, but Kamara and his team in the mortuary have been forced to load it with up to six corpses at a time.
“It is not quite easy running the mortuary with only one refrigerator and no supplies of Formalin (the liquid used to embalm corpses for preservation). They (formulas) have not been available in the hospital for over a period of five months,” Kamara said.
The mortician added that he has had to travel to Freetown sometimes to buy Formalin by himself. He said he goes to that extent because of the “passion” he has for his job.
Kamara has worked in the Makeni mortuary for eight years in a row. He has a 30 year experience handling corpses.
Kamara emphasized on the challenges the lack of enough refrigerators poses to his job. He said one of the major constraints is in dealing with corpses linked to ongoing police investigations, which can occupy the little available spaces for up to a year.
“As long as there is only one refrigerator functional and limited embalming fluids available at the hospital, there is mostly constraint with such cases and others that come in,” he said, appealing to the government to help fix the problem.
Dr. Mohamed Sheku, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, said he only heard about the problem of lack of refrigerator at the mortuary in Makeni for the first time just over a week ago. He told Politico that he had already included it in his daily briefing for the attention of the Ministry of Health.
When Politico spoke to him on Tuesday, June 9, Dr Sheku said he was yet to receive a feedback from the ministry.
The Medical Superintendent alluded to the fact that the delay in responding to his request could be the result of pressure on the health ministry thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he didn’t seem optimistic about the refrigerator crisis getting fixed anytime soon.
“It is even challenging to get medical supplies at the moment, despite several requests to the Central Medical Store. Drugs for free health care and Covid-19 supplies are very difficult to get, let alone [supplies] for the mortuary,” he said.
Dr Sheku however noted that he would continue to appeal to the government to pay attention to problems like the one the Makeni mortuary is going through, whiles they continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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