The Sunday News
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
VICTORIA Falls Hospital mortuary could soon run out of space for bodies as it emerged that 12 bodies lie unclaimed, some of them for the past three years.
This comes as Government has also launched an investigation into suspected corruption at the institution where three mortuary fridges with six compartments each were left to breakdown under harsh weather conditions. The fridges have been lying outside under direct sun and rain since 2013 after being condemned by health officials for being defective.
They were reportedly donated by an unnamed donor but deemed malfunctional before being used, a situation which has prompted Government to suspect that there were some underhand dealings involved. This emerged during a tour of the facility by Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Dr John Mangwiro last week, where he immediately activated Government auditors to investigate the issue.
Officials at the hospital told Dr Mangwiro that there were 14 bodies in the mortuary and 12 of them have been there for a long time because the deceased’s next of kin are not known.
A majority of the bodies are males while a recent one is of a woman, who was found dead in Lupinyu and police have been investigating the case as well as linking up with her next of kin.
The mortuary staff said the Department of Social Welfare had been notified so it can prepare for paupers’ burial which is usually considered when a body is unclaimed after six months. However, no paupers’ burial has taken place because of the lockdown that has been going on since last year in March.
Briefing Dr Mangwiro during the tour, Hwange District Medical Officer Dr Fungai Mvura said the fridges were lying idle outside when she joined the district as acting DMO a few years ago.
“I can’t see the difference between the ones inside and these ones said to be malfunctional. It looks like they did whatever they did and put these fridges outside as cover-up and now they have been exposed to direct sun and rain. I want an audit done to find out who condemned the fridges,” fumed Dr Mangwiro.
Dr Mangwiro ordered officials at the hospital to move the fridges to a safer place adding that engineers would have to assess their functionality so they are repaired and distributed to other health facilities. — @ncubeleon.
