Anger and anxiety mounted yesterday in Lagos after the State Government announced the shutting down of Isolo General Hospital Mortuary following an unbearable putrefied acrid stench which had been oozing from the facility and causing serious discomfort to residents around the hospital vicinity.
Huhuonline.com learnt that the authorities considered the stench as constituting a health hazard to the local residents and ordered the closure of the mortuary with immediate effect; urging families with corpses in the mortuary to remove them and take them elsewhere or the State government will take whatever dispositions it could to dispose of the corpses.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, who made the announcement, said the closure would allow the government to carry out major repairs and renovation on the mortuary as well as replace the dilapidated equipment where possible. Beginning today, Tuesday March 12, 2013, the morgue would no longer accommodate any corpse till the end of the renovation exercise.
Dr. Idris, who said the government action conformed with standard health practice, advised families with corpses in the mortuary to transfer them to other hospitals in the state with immediate effect before the closure order commences.
He said other mortuaries in State hospitals could accommodate corpses except the one at the Mainland General Hospital which had been upgraded to only accommodate some categories of corpses, including those earmarked for autopsy as directed by a Coroner; those found on roads and highways within the State and those picked up by officials of the Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit.
He said corpses of those who died while in custody or shortly thereafter and bodies which have been abandoned in other State mortuaries would henceforth be taken to the Mainland General Hospital mortuary. The Isolo General Hospital mortuary had been a major cause for worry among residents of the area over the years, but the situation became worse recently forcing the state government to take the action.
