With bodies piling up at Hillbrow mortuary, and hundreds of desperate families waiting weeks to claim and bury their loved ones’ bodies, Gauteng Health & Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has now assigned a task team to assist with the backlog of post-mortems.
City Press reported that dozens of frustrated families had contacted the media about the delays.
The normal procedure for post-mortem, death registration and handing over of the body to the family should take only about 72 hours. However, at the Hillbrow Mortuary, it has taken weeks because of staff shortages, according to the MEC.
She said to improve efficiency, the department would be hiring 200 young people to assist in converting written post-mortem reports into digital files, and recruiting five in-house pathologists for the Hillbrow mortuary to speed up services.
There are currently eight staff working at the facility. Two doctors had just resigned and two have been on long-term sick leave.
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