Bhubaneswar: Capital Hospital, which handles more than 90 per cent of autopsies in the city, has only two functional freezers in its morgue to deal with the heavy workload.
Although, the hospital has four freezers, two have not been functioning for more than a month, compelling the hospital staff to put dead bodies outside the freezer in the mortuary.
On an average the hospital handles four post-mortem cases every day and finds it difficult to preserve bodies if the two freezers are full.
“We are helpless and are trying hard to manage the situation. The two dysfunctional freezers are in an irretrievable condition. We have informed the higher authorities,” said Capital Hospital joint director Bijay Kumar Mohapatra.
Hospital employees on conditions of anonymity told Orissa POST that often it is not easy to manage the situation and there is an urgent need of additional morgues.
“We usually keep more than one dead body in one freezer. However, it is not easy and it depends on the physical size of the deceased. So if we receive four dead bodies, two have to be very lean to find a space in the freezer. Otherwise, we usually keep them in the open,” said a hospital staff.
Despite, the hospital handling a large number of autopsies, the lack of morgues does not seem to be on the health department’s agenda.
When asked, health department principal secretary Arti Ahuja SMSed a reply which read, “Two machines there can preserve four bodies at a time.” Just a few weeks back, most of the autopsies of SUM Hospital fire victims were conducted at Capital Hospital with authorities admitting they found it extremely tough to deal with the situation.
Moreover, autopsies are conducted only during the day (up to 5pm from October to March and till 6 pm from April to September). Autopsies during night are carried out only on the Police Commissioner’s orders.
Some doctors claimed they have discussed shortage of morgues with the hospital administration. “We even considered creating a fully air-conditioned room to minimise the damage to dead bodies,” said a senior doctor.
Jose K Joseph
Post News Network
