adminWilliam Busumani said yesterday that the new mortuary started operating a month ago.
Prior to the construction of the new morgue, the 140-bed hospital had to rely on a mortuary with a carrying capacity of six bodies. At times the mortuary would carry ten-fold its capacity due to the town being a transit hub.
Residents in the border town had resorted to using private mortuaries which are expensive, while others were opting to take bodies to Musina in South Africa due to the poor conditions at Beitbridge District Hospital.
According to the last population census, the hospital is a referral centre to 90 000 people, but the number has drastically increased due to outsiders who pass through the border town.
Dr Busumani said the mortuary was built with funds Targeted Approach Programme initiated by the Government.
“The state-of-the-art mortuary is now fully functional and the old set structure has also been refurbished. We are calling on residents to collect bodies of their relatives as soon as possible so that we don’t strain this facility,” Dr Busumani said.
He was concerned that some people gave wrong addresses upon admission thereby making it difficult to locate their next of kin when they die.
daniel chigunwe
Online Reporter