HOSPITAL BLAMES CIVIC BODY

The shocking story of unclaimed bodies piling up in the morgue at Osmania General Hospital, exposed in this newspaper on May 7, has not led to any improvement in the situation. Many more bodies were found piled up at the mortuary.

Dr G.V.S. Murthy, superintendent of OGH, says that letters have been written to the GHMC directing it to take away the bodies regularly. He did not himself know how many bodies are lying in his hospital and said he would check with the head of the forensic department.

Dr Taqiuddin Khan of OGH said that they were constantly reminding the civic body about the situation in the morgue.

He wrote a letter on May 17 to the Assistant Medical of Health (AMoH), with a copy to the Additional Commissioner, Health and Sanitation.

He said that 21 bodies have to be disposed of as of Saturday with 13 others still in the 72-hour waiting period.

When asked for an explanation, GHMC’s Chief Medical Officer Dr B. Ganesh Babu came up with the same excuse: the delay was due to budget-related problems due to shifting of circle. People who were waiting for post-mortems of their dead relatives were nauseated by the stench coming from the old autopsy theatre which was packed with the unclaimed bodies.

Kumar A., who owns a shop in Amberpet, was at the mortuary for the post-mortem of his friend’s sister who had committed suicide. The smell coming from the mortuary is unbearable, he said.