Goromonzi (New Ziana)-Goromonzi district health officials have appealed to the government for financial assistance to build a new mortuary at Makumbi Hospital, which can carry more bodies than the existing one, which has a capacity for only three.
Makumbi Hospital, located in Domboshava, just 31 kilometres northeast of the capital, has a catchment area of about half a million people.
Goromonzi District health services administrator Evelyne Runodada told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care that visited Makumbi Hospital that there is a serious challenge of accommodating dead bodies when they exceed the carrying capacity.
“We double the bodies per tray. And at times we put them down on the floor and we communicate with the relatives about our situation and ask them to quickly come and take their body.
“For those bodies brought in by the police, some of them take time without being collected and that poses a challenge. Some of them will never be collected and going through the process of paupers burial is a lengthy process. At times we ask the police to take the bodies to Parirenyatwa Hospital.
“In our district, this is the only mortuary that we have. So we do not have anywhere else to refer our bodies. We end up taking them for the sake of humanity,” she said.
Runodada said efforts to get funding to build a bigger mortuary have not materialised.
“We have been trying to lobby for funds to construct a new mortuary. We would like it to be a 12-bodied mortuary. So we have been applying for PSIP (Public Sector Investment Project) funds. We are still submitting our request for a mortuary,” she said.
New Ziana
