The Rivers government has constructed an 800-capacity ultra-modern mortuary at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Port Harcourt.
Speaking at the commissioning of the mortuary on Monday, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Tamunoiyoriari Parker, said the project was designed to ensure a spacious accommodation for the dead.
Parker said that on assumption of office, Gov. Chibuike Amaechi inspected the BMSH and found its mortuary dilapidated and abandoned.
“The governor quickly released funds for the completion of the project which is to be managed in partnership with a private firm, Ashes to Ashes Ltd.
“If the PPP (Public, Private, Partnership) succeeds, this will be replicated in all our General Hospitals,” he said.
Parker explained that the mortuary was built to international standard since “in Africa when we take care of the living, we also take care of the dead.”
Consultant pathologist and the Chairman of the Mortuary Monitoring Committee, Dr Charles Amakiri, thanked the government for providing the facility.
Amakiri said that the old mortuary had a capacity for only 20 bodies.
The BMSH Medical Director, Dr Olukunmi Ijeruh, said with the commissioning of the new mortuary, the old BMSH mortuary had been decommissioned.
Ijeruh called on those who still had bodies in the old mortuary to urgently pay the required fees to be able to remove them.(NAN)