General News of Saturday, 25 February 2017

Source: mynewsgh.com

Mortuary man justifies why they deserve more pay than doctors

File photo: A mortuary man intercepted a body at the Tema Community 9 cemetery. File photo: A mortuary man intercepted a body at the Tema Community 9 cemetery.

Their contribution to Ghana’s health sector has over the years been relegated to the background with people looking down upon them because of the kind of job they do.

Recently, an incensed mortuary man made headlines when he stormed the Tema Community 9 cemetery and intercepted a dead body that was almost being interred because relations of the deceased owed him GH¢40 being a balance of payment for services he rendered.

But his colleague in an exclusive interview with mynewsgh.com justified the action and said they are treated with disdain by mostly bereaved families which is very disheartening.

According to him, work as a mortuary man is one of the very difficult tasks and he wish they were more catered for than doctors at the various health facilities in the country.

“We should be the ones receiving more pay and not the doctors. The doctors only come here to issue instructions and we do the work no matter how hard it is. I receive GH¢ 500 as my monthly salary despite the kind of job schedule I have, so if I do a few other things like bathing corpse and dressing it for burial and I am cheated, I will be angry”, he explained.

He does not understand why managers of various health facilities are reluctant in giving them good salaries considering the critical role they play in national development appealing to central government to come to their rescue.