Investigation has revealed that mortuary attendants at the Eastern Regional Hospital allegedly took a Ghc450 bribe from the bereaved family of a woman who died of Covid-19 to illegally release.
Children of the deceased woman -Madam Janet Nyarkoa who live abroad and some family members in Ghana colluded with the mortuary workers to release the body Sunday morning around 4:30am earlier before the time agreed for the arrival of Environmental officers to supervise the preparation of the body for burial at the Public cemetery.
Meanwhile, management of the Eastern Regional Hospital has commenced an investigation into the incident
Speaking to the media in Koforidua Wednesday, the Clinical Director at the Eastern Regional Hospital, Dr. Foster Amponsah- Manu said, management has taken the allegation seriously and will assist the police to investigate the incident aside from its internal investigations.
He said the hospital will not shield anyone found culpable.
The New Juaben South Municipal Environmental Officer, Emmanuel Tetteh, had called for an investigation into the circumstances under which mortuary workers at the Eastern Regional Hospital secretly released a covid-19 corpse to a bereaved family.
Background
There was drama Sunday, March 14, 2021, when environmental officers from the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly noticed that mortuary workers at the hospital have released the corpse to the family dawn before their arrival.
The bereaved family reportedly sent the body for burial service in an SDA Church near Ayah Junction in Koforidua.
After hours of failed search for the whereabouts of the body, the angry environmental officers went to the cemetery to block the family from going ahead to bury the body of the late Madam Janet Nyarkoa.
The situation turned chaotic when the family later arrived at the cemetery to bury the body which was in a hearse.
The Municipal Environmental officer insisted that the family followed him to report the case at the Police station before they will be allowed to bury the body which the family obliged after minutes of argument.
“I had to prevent them because I don’t know where they took the body to find out from the mortuary. The body was released at the morgue so find out from the morgue who released the body to the family members without an officer. I should have been there before the body was released to the family. I should have been present. So who gave the body to the family? I will be happy if you do that investigation. Because when I got there to supervise the burial, the body was not there so I rather had to stop them at the cemetery so we reported at the Police Station” Emmanuel Tetteh told mybrytfmonline.com.
The Municipal Environmental said it was wrong for the mortuary workers at the Eastern Regional Hospital to release a Covid-19 body to the family knowing the protocols for the burial of such bodies.
“The body shouldn’t have been released. Because it is a covid case the body shouldn’t have been released to the family at the morgue because they know the protocol. To find out who released the body to the family at the morgue”.
