Mortuary at Civil Hospital sans toilets, drinking water

Tribune News Service

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Bathinda, March 29

The mortuary on the premises of Bhai Mani Singh Civil Hospital lacks toilet and drinking water facilities. The attendants accompanying bodies to the mortuary for a postmortem have to bear with foul smell emanating from dumping of biomedical waste in the open. Even there is no functional toilet inside the unit.

In the absence of a toilet, attendants visiting the mortuary either urinate in the backyard of mortuary or are forced to visit the TB hospital adjacent to the unit to answer the call of nature.

The attendants also complain that biomedical waste dumped in the open at the entrance itself emanates foul smell, making it difficult to stand inside the unit. The mortuary building has not seen renovation for years and it appears that walls may crumble down at any moment.

An employee of the Civil Hospital said, “There are toilets installed at the mortuary unit but the authorities concerned did not bother to repair these toilets rather turned them into storerooms where discarded carton boxes and plastics cans are disposed.”

He added, “There is no water cooler or RO system at the mortuary and staff has to carry water in containers from other units of the hospital. The medical waste is disposed in the open and not lifted on time from the mortuary.”

Sukhjinder Singh Gill, Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, said, “We have written to the state health department to release funds to complete all the pending works at the mortuary. We are hopeful that work will start soon.”