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Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | St Joseph Catholic Missionary Hospital Kitovu, in Masaka City, has set up a modern mortuary.
The mortuary worth 277 million Shillings was constructed through a partnership with the Make People Stronger Foundation based in the Netherlands.
Doctor Alfred Lumala, the Hospital Administrator says that the new mortuary is equipped with 32 compartments, fitted with a modern refrigeration system that is capable of preserving the bodies for two years.
He indicates that the new facility has come to save them the burden of keeping bodies in an ordinary tiny room, which has been undeserving and inconveniencing to both the medical team and people who go there to pick up the bodies of their relatives.
Dr Lumala says that the facility will also be opened to the general public, to serve other people who wish to have proper management and storage services for the bodies of their relatives before burial.
Doctor Robert Lukande, a Pathologist and Lecturer of Medicine at Makerere University who worked as a Technical Supervising Consultant of the project, says that the facility has come in to improve the image of a mortuary which the public is associating with filthiness and grimy experiences.
He says that the hospital is now presented with the opportunity of improving its capacity in the handling of dead bodies, which can also help in generating sizeable revenues through offering services to the general public.
Ronald Kalema, the Manager of the Mortuary indicates that the facility is going to offer highly subsidized services to the public. He says that a corpse will be preserved for 42,000 Shillings per day and 300,000 Shillings for its general treatment.
Michael Mulindwa Nakumusana, the Nyendo-Mukungwe Division Chairperson says that the morgue is going to relieve the region of the underlying burden of poor handling of dead bodies at hospitals.
According to Mulindwa, the entire greater Masaka sub-region comprised of ten districts has the capacity of providing improved mortuary and storage services to only six bodies, using the two refrigerators that were recently installed at the Masaka regional referral hospital.
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