Families wait for their relatives’ bodies for hours at Tambo Memorial Hospital
Other affected families even resorted to breaking down the mortuary door, demanding attention.
About 50 families who collected their relatives’ corpses at Tambo Memorial Hospital on August 31 waited about seven hours to be assisted.
One of the affected families, Lindi Vena, from Vosloorus, who collected her sister’s body to be taken to a private mortuary, said she got to the hospital at 7am and was only assisted at around 2pm. Her sister died on August 29 at the hospital.
“When we arrived at the mortuary the door was locked and no one was there to assist us. Other affected families even resorted to breaking down the mortuary door, demanding attention. Just after 11am we went to the CEO’s office, but he wasn’t there. We weren’t taken seriously. If there was a problem they should have addressed us rather than keeping quiet,” Vena said.
At around 1pm when the Advertiser spoke to Vena she said she was in one of the wards at the hospital with someone from the private mortuary to collect her sister’s file.
“I haven’t received my sister’s body yet, but at least I see two social workers now attending to complaints,” Vena said.
According to the hospital CEO, Zenzo Ndabula, the families have been attended to.
“I think there was a bit of a confusion because the two clerks who are working at the mortuary were not available today.
“One of the clerks is on annual leave and the other, who was supposed to be working, is off sick.
“We have dealt with the matter now and they are being attended to,” Ndabula said.
He urged complainants to directly lodge complaints to his office. If he is not available there will be someone who will assist, 24/7.
Also Read: Tambo Memorial Hospital finally gets new CEO
Another incident of baby swapping being investigated at Tambo Memorial
