THE Parliamentary Opposition Group has expressed grave concerns about the awful state of the existing morgue at the National Referral Hospital (NRH).
In a statement, it says the unspeakable state of the morgue has been overlooked by the Health administration and has called for the current Government to seriously address the issue.
The Opposition Group understands that early last year the former NRH chief executive officer Dr Roger Maraka have reported that a new and bigger morgue will be built next to the existing one.
In an Solomon Star article dated 26th February 2015 and titled ‘Govt to build new morgue’, Dr Roger stated that the funding for the project would come from the Ministry of Health and Medical Service’s 2015 budget; and work on the new morgue should have kicked off early last year.
“The ministry of health must inform us what happened to the project and why work has never eventuated,” the Opposition statement said.
The Opposition Group has received various complaints by people that currently the deceased are kept in makeshift morgues from cooler-like containers.
As a result, sometimes when the coolers are not working properly it gives out very bad odor around the hospital area.
“Morgues should be one of the cleanest and a respected place in the hospital where our loved ones are kept but the current situation is appalling as it is the opposite,” it said.
The Opposition said the Government must not turn a blind eye on this matter.
“Obviously, someone is not doing his/her job and the ministry itself needs a major shakeup,” it said.
“It’s been a year now and we have not seen any physical changes to the proposed project and the ministry needs to explain, “It said.
The Parliamentary Opposition Office also urged the Parliamentary Health Committee to investigate the matter and make recommendations to the responsible authorities to immediately address the situation.
