BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 24, 2019– The morgue at the Southern Regional Hospital has not been in working condition for several weeks and the Ministry of Health apparently did not treat the matter with any urgency until the reality was graphically brought to the country’s attention over the Easter holidays, when a dead body had to be returned to a relative, because the hospital was unable to provide storage.

In a press release yesterday, the People’s United Party (PUP) cited the non-working Southern Regional Hospital morgue as, “Another health atrocity under the UDP.”

“The entire nation should be appalled and outraged by the revelation that the morgue at the Southern Regional Hospital, which services both the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts has been out of operation for more than a month. This is unacceptable and yet, the Ministry of Health has nothing to say on this matter. What is worse is that this would have gone under the radar were it not for the death of a woman last week in Dangriga, where her husband was told that her body could not be kept at the morgue because it was not working,” the PUP release said.

In a press release issued some hours after the PUP fired off their release, the Ministry of Health issued a statement on the morgue situation at the Southern Regional Hospital.

The Ministry’s press release, however, opened by taking issue with the PUP release.

“The Ministry of Health views with concern a press release issued by the People’s United Party in reference to the morgue situation at the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga Town. The Ministry considers this to be of poor taste in terms of politicizing the death of an individual in search of political mileage.”

After attempting to put the PUP in check for what it describes as “politicizing the death of an individual,” the Ministry of Health went on to offer “its sincerest apology once more to the family and expresses regret that the family has experienced this unfortunate situation due to poor communication at the local level.”

In an acknowledgement of the ministry’s responsibility for the crisis at the hospital facility, however, the release added, “The Ministry has conveyed to the family that it is prepared to offer any additional assistance and is making its utmost efforts to correct this systemic failure.”

The release said: “The Ministry of Health has no problem acknowledging that there is a need to purchase equipment for the morgue to improve services, not only at the Southern Regional Hospital but throughout the country.” It continued: “Although the Ministry is faced with competing priorities, management has made the decision to enforce the existing morgue policy which includes the hospital’s responsibility to transport bodies to either the Western Regional Hospital or the Punta Gorda Community Hospital morgue, or otherwise if requested by the family for storage.”

The release went on to explain that a vehicle is provided for the necessary transportation “should the family require.”

This was not explained to the family by the physician who signed the death certificate, after the person had died at home and was transported to the hospital by the Police Department, the release said.

The release said the Ministry will invest in the repairs of the present morgue units while at the same time preparing to make a case for additional funding to purchase new units.

The Ministry of Health press release was not specific about the projected date when the morgue would be functional.

The Ministry’s release said: “…the Ministry is still awaiting a time for delivery of the part and will hopefully have the morgue up and working over the medium term, within a week’s time.”

The release further said, “The Ministry of Health is working to restore the Southern Regional Hospital morgue and asks that the community cooperates during this time.”

Acting Regional Manager for the Southern Regional Hospital, Franelda Gutierrez, told us in a telephone interview that since the morgue stopped functioning a few weeks ago, its machinery came on stream about two weeks ago, but has since gone down again.

Gutierrez said that that when it is functional the morgue has a capacity to hold four bodies and the hospital accommodates as many bodies as possible when the morgue is working. She said that with the morgue being down, the hospital tries to accommodate everyone and bodies are transported by a vehicle which is on standby.

Gutierrez said she couldn’t say exactly when the morgue would be functional again, but “that it will be a couple of weeks.”