The morgue at the largest hospital in the country can currently hold up to 12 bodies. But, right now, there are 15 bodies left unclaimed at the KHMH. This has caused a major backlog for the hospital - where there are more new bodies every day. That's why they are asking the public to pick up their loved ones since, at the rate people are dying - both because of COVID and of other causes - the bodies will keep piling up - to unmanageable levels.
The KHMH reminded citizens of its regulations to hold COVID 19 positive bodies for only 24 hours, and highlighted that some bodies have been in the morgue for 3-4 days. And while there may be plenty of reasons that families haven't picked up the bodies yet, not all of them are sufficiently justifiable to cause such a strain on an already overwhelmed hospital.
The acting CEO at the KHMH, Timothy Seguro, spoke more about the issue.
Timothy Seguro, Acting CEO, KHMH
"What we're doing is that we're making a public plea to the society in general with respect to assisting us to get their bodies out as quick as possible from the morgue. The reason being, we originally had space for 21 bodies but one of the units had stopped functioning about 2 weeks ago and with the advent of COVID and the situation where we are, we're going in excess of what we should have in our morgue."
Reporter:
"If it was for 21 with that one down for how many do you have capacity?"
Timothy Seguro, Acting CEO, KHMH
"Right now the capacity is for 12."
Courtney Menzies:
"And when do you think the other unit will be repaired?"
Timothy Seguro, Acting CEO, KHMH
"Through the forensic department they're telling us before the end of this week that unit should be repaired. However with the rate of deaths we're having and it includes COVID and regular deaths, we will exceed that 21 in no time."
Reporter:
"How much do you have in the morgue right now, are you over capacity?"
Timothy Seguro, Acting CEO, KHMH
"Yes we have 15 and we had to ask forensics department to take on three bodies that we should e responsible for."
"As a general Belizean society, we like to have this 3-5 to 6,7 days wait for just planning but we're asking if they can cut that down to two or three days, it will greatly assist us."
"For COVID deaths we want the bodies to get out of the morgue as quick as possible so that we decrease the risk of cross contamination for our staff and other persons coming into the morgue."
Courtney Menzies:
"Can you say how many of the 15 bodies are COVID deaths?"
Timothy Seguro, Acting CEO, KHMH
"Right now we have six. This morning it was seven but one left."
Courtney Menzies:
"And is there a fee to take out the bodies, I heard a lot of people complaining that they might not have the money to take out the bodies."
Timothy Seguro, Acting CEO, KHMH
"There's a minimal fee I would say for the undertaker fee which is $100 and then for that it is $50 for every night after. So to say that it is the fees that's causing the bodies to stay here, I Don't see why because the longer you leave the body, the more it gets."
"From ever since I was here about two or three weeks ago, our personnel from the morgue have been calling the relatives and also the undertakers to try and fast track the process but some people are adamant that they don't see the need for us to hurry them."
Reporter:
"So what has been the response from them?"
Timothy Seguro, Acting CEO, KHMH
"There have been various reasons from finance to we're waiting for a loved one to come from stats, those are the type of reasons they give us."
