Kabale hospital stuck with 5 decomposing unclaimed bodies

Kabale regional referral hospital is stuck with five unclaimed dead bodies of four adults and a child.

A mortuary attendant said that one of the adult bodies has been in the mortuary since November 2022, two others since early January 2023, and another in mid-January 2023.

Three of the bodies are of people who died at the hospital while two were found dumped in Kabale Municipality. Hospital staff say the poorly treated bodies have now started decomposing, imposing a terrible working environment due to heavy stench.

Worse still, the bodies have now rendered the mortuary unusable since it is too small to admit any more bodies. Deborah Niwamanya, acting senior hospital administrator says the unclaimed decomposing bodies are creating a health threat to the community living near the mortuary.

She however says that the hospital administration is liaising with responsible stakeholders to have the matter handled expeditiously. Justin Barekye, Kabale municipality town clerk when contacted says that she is not aware of the dead bodies stuck at the mortuary and the need for burial by the municipality environment department.