Zimbabwe’s overstretched health facilities are finding it hard enough to cater for living patients — but now one hospital doesn’t even have room for the dead, local reports said on Thursday.
Bodies are piling up on the floor at the morgue at Mpilo Central Hospital in the city of Bulawayo and no more corpses are being accepted, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported.
”The hospital stopped taking bodies from the police and prison officials a week ago because the mortuary is already overwhelmed by the high number of people who die at the hospital, and some bodies have to be placed on the floor,” the paper quoted an unnamed source at the hospital as saying.
The mortuary at Mpilo was built to take 60 bodies but sometimes had to accommodate up to 250 bodies at a time, the Herald said.
Relatives of the dead sometimes left corpses at hospitals for days while they raised money for funerals and transport.
At least 3 000 Zimbabweans are estimated to die each week of HIV/Aids-related illnesses, putting a strain on health institutions already battling to cope amid Zimbabwe’s worst-ever economic crisis.
Biting foreign currency shortages mean hospitals are often unable to procure vital drugs and machinery spares, while soaring inflation rates have hit health centres hard.
Inflation is currently running at 782%, but may reach 920% next week, economists predict.
The paper said Mpilo Central Hospital had run out of building materials to finish a bigger mortuary. – Sapa-DPA