In the past few days, stench from the mortuary in Government Kilpauk Hospital (KMCH) has become unbearable. Unlike the mortuaries at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital or Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH), the one in the KMCH is usually cleaned regularly as it is next to the office of the Director of Medical Education.
But the overpowering stench is because since April 5, about seven to 10 bodies are being brought every day from the GRH morgue to be stored at the KMCH, to which the hospital is affiliated.
15 unclaimed bodies
KMC Dean T. Ramakrishnan said that the mortuary at the hospital can accommodate 25 bodies. However, currently there are 30 bodies stored in its mortuary. While 10 have come from the GRH, 15 have no claimants. According to the hospital policy, unknown bodies, with the permission from the Commissioner of Police, are cleared once in every three months.
The delay in disposing of the bodies is also due to shortage of forensic medicine experts. With corpses being transferred from the Royapettah hospital, there are supposed to be five tutors and one professor from KMC hospital and one qualified assistant professor and tutors who would perform autopsies on rotation every day. However, there were only four on duty on Saturday.
While the resident medical officer said that there was space to store every corpse and hospital staff claim that the mortuary is cleaned by five workers every day at 4 p.m., delay by the police in completing formalities leading to the release of the bodies results in putrification of corpses.
It is not just the sanitation of patients but also storing of corpses must be of concern. According to KMCH authorities, the renovation of the morgue would be completed in a week.
