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.
//Cue in: “we can always ….
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Luganda
//Cue in: “tumanyi abantu bawerako….
Cue out; ….eddagala
libalagala.”//
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.
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today.”//
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.
