Mortuary like ‘old garage’ is off limits for families as review launched

A FAMILY who compared a morgue to an “unkept old garage”when they identified a body of a relative have sparked a review of mortuary services.

Relatives of Frank Whyte, who died in May, aged 69, have told of their shock at the state of Spynie Mortuary in Elgin.

Mr Whyte’s daughter Natalie, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, said: “Spynie can only be described as a derelict collection of buildings sitting on waste ground, overgrown with weeds and in a dismal state of repair.

“There was nowhere for me to sit and rest. I ended up sitting on the ground outside. It was extremely distressing.

His widow Maryan added: “Just two steps for us to be inside that awful place, and there was my husband, just lying, wrapped in a blanket and throw on a trolley. No warning of what we were entering, no place, no time for composure, just there he was.”

She said the building where her husband had been laid out looked “derelict” and like an “old garage” with an “old sofa” inside and “unkempt” surroundings.

Another daughter, Sharon, added: “It looked like a disused outbuilding we were being taken to, not somewhere our loved one would be.

“Our last image of seeing [my dad] was in a little used unkept building in urgent need of replacement.”

Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell said NHS Grampian had given reassurances no family would be asked to visit the mortuary again.

She said health boards have been asked to comply with current guidance on mortuary provision.

Ms Campbell, who apologised, said viewings “take place in appropriately serene, calming and dignified surroundings”.