Dead bodies now preserved at homes in Tamale

Tamale, Oct. 18, GNA - Some residents of the Tamale Metropolis have resorted to preserving dead bodies at home, the Concerned Citizens Association of Tamale (CCAT) has said.

Mr. Basharu A. Dabali, President of the Association, said information received indicated that some people in the city were preserving dead bodies in their rooms as a result of the break down of the 32-year-old fridge at the Tamale Teaching Hospital mortuary. Mr Dabali said this in Tamale on Wednesday after he and some executive members of CCAT had interacted with Mr. George Atampugre, an Administrator at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

He said equipment at the hospital were so obsolete that they needed replacement and not refurbishment, adding: "It would be a waste of resources on the part of the government to rehabilitate these equipment".

Mr. Dabali appealed to foreign missions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public-spirited individuals to come to the aid of the hospital.

Mr. Atampugre said the fridge had broken down for more than a week now and the hospital authorities had requested relatives to remove their corpses for burial.

Following the breakdown, the hospital authorities have been embalming dead bodies for those who wanted to preserve them or take them either to the Yendi or Bolgatanga Hospital mortuaries.

Mr. Atampugre said the hospital authorities were making frantic efforts to acquire the components for the fridge from Accra and assured the people that the mortuary would "come back to life" very soon. Dr Elias Sory, Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, said he was not aware that people were preserving dead bodies in their homes.

He appealed to the people to patronise the services of the Yendi Hospital mortuary while efforts were made to put back the mortuary at the Tamale Teaching in operation.