Jinja Regional Referral Hospital has gone two months now without a pathologist leading to the release of several bodies for burial without postmortem. Postmortem/ autopsy is an examination of a dead body to establish the exact cause of death. Unconfirmed reports indicate that at least eight bodies have been handed over to their relatives for […]
Jinja Regional Referral Hospital has gone two months now without a pathologist leading to the release of several bodies for burial without postmortem.
Postmortem/ autopsy is an examination of a dead body to establish the exact cause of death.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that at least eight bodies have been handed over to their relatives for burial over in the past three weeks without postmortem.
However people that spoke on condition of anonymity claim the hospital administrators are not clear on when the pathologist will resume duty.
The hospital pathologist Dr. Godfrey Ssenyonjo reportedly fell ill about two months ago and there is no alternative substitute.
Dr. Edward Nkurunziza, the Director Jinja Regional Referral hospital confirmed the problem, noting that since the pathologist fell ill getting a postmortem report from the facility has become problem.
“He was taken ill two months ago. This created a gap at the mortuary but we shall improvise as administrators. One of us will be assigned the task for the meantime as we wait for the responsible doctor to recover and resume his duties,” he said.
“It was really alarming when a student attached to Kampala university was last week shot dead. The body spent a night in the fridges only to be alerted the following day how the responsible doctor was not available. So we teamed with family members and ferried the deceased to Iganga hospital for postmortem, which was costly and time wasting.”he said.
Dr. James Waako, the Medical Superintendent Iganga hospital confirms that doctors at the facility regularly perform postmortem on bodies brought in by police from other hospitals.
