[quite_right] By Caribbean Medical News Staff [/quote_right]
Dominica’s Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) has been at the center of attention in recent times because there has been an increasing worry that the morgue has been non-functional for the past few months.
In a speedy response to the allegations, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. David Johnson refuted the claims and said that there is no crisis regarding storage of bodies at the hospital Morgue. He said that the ministry of health purchased a new chiller which took up additional space in the morgue.
“We had an old chiller and we bought a new chiller, the chiller that we bought is a bit bigger than the old one and therefore it’s a question of space for family members to come in to view their loved ones before the post-mortem takes place, so the new chiller is a little bigger and so space is a bit cramped,” he explained.
He added that arrangements for proper storage of the bodies have been made with the different funeral homes on the island.
Dr Johnson said that there are plans to extend the facility so that it will be able to store more bodies and create more space for viewing. He said that “there are plans to actually extend the size of the morgue so that it makes it comfortable to house the bigger chiller which will increase space so that when the family members come in, at least they are a lot more comfortable. I can’t give you an exact time when it will be completed because it has not started,” Dr. Johnson added.
“We are storing some of the bodies in different funeral homes and when the autopsies have to be done, the bodies are recalled and the families do have an opportunity to come in and to identify their loved ones before the autopsy takes place particularly if it’s a Coroner’s case,” he said.
Dr Johnson further stressed that there is no crisis taking place at the Morgue, “we have autopsies being done on a regular basis.” He said that in light of plans for the construction of the new hospital, a location for the extension of the morgue has become more difficult to consider.
