A member of Inter Christian Youth in Development, a grouping of youngsters from the Roman Catholic Church, CCAP, Calvary Family Church and Winners Chapel, Joseph Nkula, who was with the family said the mortuary attendants also refused to give them water for them to use.

“At first they told us to pay K4,500. Unfortunately, none of us had that kind of money so we told them we were going to do it ourselves. Then they said there was no water. They asked us how much we had but we couldn’t produce anything so we just borrowed a bucket from them,” he said.

Nkula who stormed Malawi News newsroom last week said he immediately reported the matter to the officials of the hospital’s administration who promised to investigate the matter.

Nkula’s ordeal was corroborated by one of the members of the bereaved family, a woman who refused to have her name mentioned to conceal the identity of the family because her traditions gag her from discussing dead people after the funeral ceremony.

“I was there when the incident happened. There were five of us including Nkula. They asked us to pay K4,500 but we didn’t have that money. We fetched the water from the wards,” she said.

Hospital Administrator, Thom Chisale said in an interview he heard about the incident from his deputy and he was intending to call the complainant and the mortuary staff so that he should get their side of the story.

Chisale said government hospitals have started charging K1,500 to have a body cleaned by mortuary attendants following a circular from Ministry of Health “because it is not a crucial service”. But he said the fee for cleaning only does not go above K1,500.

“Government felt that cleaning dead bodies is not a crucial service and decided that those requiring the service should be paying something according to the circular that we have. The fee for cleaning is somewhere between K1,000 and K1,600. It goes higher if it includes embalming. The money goes to government and receipts are issued,” said Chisale.

Nkula said he went back to the hospital this week when Chisale called him for a discussion as part of the hospital’s investigations. He claimed he confronted the two mortuary attendants who were among those present during the incident in the presence of the administrator.

Meanwhile, the youth organization which said it had been studying the hospital’s activities since last year claimed to have established that some of the hospital’s nurses were ill-treating patients and that some patients were sometimes given food without relish.

Chisale said they previously registered cases where some nurses were disciplined because of such incidents but he said he was not aware of the case that the NGO was referring to and challenged them to cite specific cases so that he could investigate and take action instead of making unsubstantiated accusations.

He said the issue of food was a problem when ward attendants were the ones handling the food because sometimes they could divert some of the food but he said the hospital now engages kitchen staff to provide food to patients.

“But the problem is that guardians also want to eat patients’ food and as a result it becomes insufficient,” he said.

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lazarus (41.213.126.12) 2010-02-28 09:44:07 Is this the work of mortuary attendants? If they have to do it, they have to be paid for it as I'm not convinced that it is part of their brief. It it the responsibility of members of the family of the deceased. If they want someone else to do it, they have to be ready to pay for it. Reply 0   0

Why? Rhoda (79.67.146.64) 2010-05-05 22:32:37 What is the job description of a mortuary attendant? Understanding this will clear all the misunderstanding. Now suppose it is not their job, what do they attend to? Is it not possible for the hospital administration to spell it out in black and white to the public that it is not part of the MA's job description so that the public comes to collect the remains of their loved ones with a clear understanding of what is expected in this instance? Reply 0   0

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