By Awa Macalo
The Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital has said that the unidentified dead bodies at the mortuary have no health implications on the lives of patients, staff, and residents around the vicinity.
“Over a long period, the number of unidentified bodies has increased in the mortuary, however with the refrigerators in the mortuary functioning well, they do not pose any environmental or health hazard to the patients and staff around the hospital,” a statement from the hospital said.
The hospital management also reported that procedures are already in place to provide a mass grave for the corpses.
“We would like to inform the general public that the preparations are done in collaboration with the police and the Banjul City Council to have the bodies buried in a mass grave,” the statement added.
The presence of the bodies, some of them over 5 years ago, has caused concern among many people.
However, the hospital authority said that the mortuary has a well-functioning mechanism that preserves bodies and imposes no health hazards.
“We have a functioning mortuary where dead patients are taken to for collection by family members for burial. We equally receive dead bodies, some of which are unidentified, who were not primarily admitted by us, but brought for keeping and at times further investigation by relevant authorities until they are cleared for burial.”
