Johannesburg -The provincial department of health said on Tuesday it planned to spend R8 million to revamp state mortuaries across the province.
“The district hospitals and clinics’ old cold rooms will be replaced, new fridges installed and family viewing rooms will be built. In tertiary and regional hospitals, old fridges will be upgraded, office space and storage capacity will also be increased,” the department said in a statement.
“With about 450 officials working in mortuaries across the province, the body load ranges from 1 736 to 8 060 per hospital.”
In district hospitals, the load ranged from 7 128 to 8 325, while in in regional and tertiary hospitals it ranged from 17 011 to 18 476, the department said, adding that hospital mortuaries were experiencing staff shortages.
The Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg mortuary has a shortage of four officials, while Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria was short of two employees and Soweto’s Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital has nine vacancies. District hospitals need 11 employees, the department said.
Plans were under way for the construction of a new Johannesburg forensic pathology laboratory in November.
“The department has employed about 44 pathologists based at different forensic pathology services. The case load per pathologist per annum is an average of about 250, however, this might increase to an average of about 500 bodies per pathologist as a result of trauma and violence.”
African News Agency