THE National Referral Hospital (NRH) on Friday marked another important milestone in the opening of the new mortuary.
It is located at the Eastern end of the hospital’s compound.
Speaking at the launching, the NRH Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Steve Aumanu said that the mortuary has now shifted its services from the old facility beside the hospital’s Pharmacy department.
The new facility houses the sitting area for mourners, including rest rooms, and other conveniences built on a very well secured spot.
Dr Aumanu said that the project faced a very slow start with some delays due to the funding allocations and the issues regarding the functionality of this mortuary building.
However, they acknowledged the Ministry of Infrastructure & Development (MID) for stepping in to complete the project worth SBD$2.5 million.
He said that the services that will be provided at the new morgue were including the three main key services: Boarding, Embalming and Orthosis.
The hospital CEO also did a rundown of the new charges which members of the public need to take note of when wanting to store dead bodies in the new mortuary.
“The boarding or (storage) dead bodies for citizens will be SBD$350 per night for those who died outside of the Hospital. For deaths that occur inside the hospital, there will be no fee charged for boarding.
“For non-citizens, it is SBD$750 per night for a dead body.
“The executive has decided that, the length of stay for boarding will be 24 hours with exceptions and exceptions can be boarding for bodies of people waiting to go to the their respective islands and provinces,” Dr Aumanu said.
He added that this will allow the flow of the bodies stored in the morgue to avoid crowdedness.
“The next service is embalming, and the cost of embalming is SBD$5,000 for citizens. For non-citizens, the cost for embalming will be SBD$15,000.
“The third service provided is orthosis and the cost for local citizens is SBD$7,500 and for none citizens, it is SBD20, 000,” he stated.
All fees or charges must be paid to the NRH casher, Dr Aumanu said.
Meanwhile, the CEO would like to announce that the executive has decided that the opening hours will be from 6:00 am to 12:00 midnight daily and closed from 12:00 am to 6:00 am in the morning to allow cleanup and also to show respect to nearby residences.
He added that with these facilities it must be cared for by those who will be using it.
“Everyone must ensure that this area is a smoking and betel nut chewing free zone.”
By GEORGE GWAMANI
