Contrary to the tall claims of the federal government to have provided satisfactory health cover to the masses, the capital city has only one mortuary that can’t cater for a large population. The only functional mortuary is at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), a government-run hospital, but with the capacity to accommodate only 10 bodies. An official at PIMS, on the condition of anonymity, told Pakistan Today, “This mortuary is not enough to accommodate a large number of bodies and in case of deaths from a bomb explosion or any major incident like the plane crash in Margallah Hills, we place the bodies in OPD or in the open.” He pointed out that placing bodies in the open air was very dangerous as after a few hours, wounded bodies become highly infected and there are great chances of an outbreak of skin or respiratory diseases among patients visiting the PIMS OPD. He said there was a capacity to accommodate only six bodies in the main hospital, two in Children’s Hospital and two in Mother and Child Hospital (MCH), which was very insufficient. While not even a single government hospital has a mortuary to deal with an emergency situation in the capital.
When contacted, Dr Shareef Astori, spokesperson, Polyclinic, another government hospital, said they had established a mortuary recently with the capacity of 10 bodies. Contrary to Dr Sharif’s claim, the body of the slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer had been shifted from Polyclinic to PIMS due to insufficient post-mortem facilities and in the absence of a mortuary. Another official said, “It’s true that Polyclinic has established a mortuary, but it is still non-functional for unknown reasons.”
He added the mortuary at Polyclinic had been completed, but the delay in its inauguration was not understood as the hospital also had a medico-legal surgeon, Dr Arshad Mehmood, to operate the mortuary. PIMS Social Welfare Deputy Director Dr Waseem Khawaja told Pakistan Today that one mortuary was not enough and there must be another one with the capacity of 150 to 200 bodies.
He was of the opinion, “A mortuary should not be established in a hospital where there is already a burden of thousands of patients, so it is difficult to deal with dead bodies and take DNA tests under an emergency situation.”
Where to Keep the Dead
