The Southern Regional Morgue out of Commission, Again
While we were with the Director of Health Services, we asked him for an update on the status of the morgue at the Southern Regional Hospital. On Friday, residents from Dangriga and neighbouring communities were informed that the morgue at the regional health facility was not functioning again and that it would be out of commission for at least three weeks when a new cold storage unit will be installed. Doctor Marvin Manzanero explains the situation and what is being done in the interim with the bodies of persons who perish in the south.
Marvin Manzanero
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services
“It went down again sometime in the beginning of the week, kinda got it going again and went back down again. What I checked before, earlier in the day, is the condenser for the evaporator—some technical term in that regard—was done and it has not been able to be outsourced—not by FT Williams is the company that I think I was told is working on it or by our NEMC Unit here in Belize City. So they are still trying to find the part for that. So if that is out, I don’t know that we can do anything with that specific unit. I did check in terms of the status, because I think we had mentioned earlier—couple of weeks ago—that we are procuring new units. I am being made to understand those units arrive in the country on the fifteenth of August and then the installation process will happen during that week.”
Duane Moody
“So in the meantime?”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“Bodies, as I understand it, were being transferred to other morgues, particularly the Western Health Region one.”
Duane Moody
“The inconvenience of that. So it is the public or the family members that take on that additional cost?”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“Well again, it goes back to what the role of the specific unit is going to be; what the role of the morgue is. As I understand it, once the patient dies inside a hospital facility then we will have the obligation to bring that body somewhere. I think the tricky situation is what happens if the patient dies outside, who transports that body. Well again, we don’t have that responsibility, but we still try to facilitate as much as we can. Once it is a police case, it is a no-brainer; the police takes responsibility for that.”
