‘Undertakers enjoying post-mortem backlog in Gauteng health facilities,’ says MEC

Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has slammed some undertakers in Gauteng for taking advantage of the backlog of post-mortems at Gauteng’s health facilities.

The MEC updated the province on the interventions implemented to improve efficiency at Gauteng’s forensic pathology service mortuaries.

The MEC slammed undertakers of using the crisis to force grieving families to pay for services not rendered.

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“We are aware that some of these undertakers do not have the resources such as the required freezers,” said the MEC.

“Some of them have grieving families pay for the service, when they in fact, keep the bodies in our facilities and come collect on Fridays knowing that the funeral is on the next day. What these undertakers are not telling you is that they are enjoying this backlog of post-mortems in our facilities.”

Some of the undertakers have allegedly requested families to pay an extra R2,000, with a promise to engage government mortuaries to prioritise their loved ones.

“We would like to plead with families who have been made to pay any cent by these undertakers, claiming that they will ensure that our mortuaries prioritise and escalate their member’s post-mortem case, to come forward and inform us so that we can take action against those people and any employee that is involved in our mortuary,” said the MEC.

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“We are pleading with them to come forward so that we can deal with these unscrupulous funeral parlous that continue rip-off poor grieving families.”

Post-mortem backlog

Nkomo-Ralehoko said one of the challenges being faced by the Forensic Pathology Service is the backlog of unidentified and unclaimed bodies in Gauteng’s mortuaries, and the poor turn-around time and finalisation of post-mortem reports and their capturing.

“We know that at some of our mortuaries, especially at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Service, which many of you know as the Hillbrow mortuary, there has been an outcry where you find that over the weekend, families who want to bury their departed loved ones would be frustrated as they could not get access to the mortal remains due to processes that were taking longer to complete.”

She apologised to the families.

Interventions

The department has started with the digitisation of fingerprints of the deceased, resulting in a quick turn-around time when it comes to the identification of the deceased.

“This system uses biometric scanners and third-party access to the Department of Home Affairs, South African Police Service and National Credit Bureaus database to identify deceased bodies and trace their relatives,” said the MEC.

Through the Forensic Pathology Service Digital Fingerprint system, the department has been able to identify bodies and trace families of known unclaimed bodies.

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On Monday, the department appointed a Provincial Task Team to assist with the soaring number of bodies being admitted across the province.

“This task team was appointed as part of efforts to tackle the backlog in post-mortems at FPS mortuaries as a result of mass fatalities, cases with outstanding medical history, cases that necessitate stakeholder involvement such South African Police Service (SAPS), Correctional Services or a comprehensive medical history among others.”

At the Hillbrow Mortuary alone, the department has managed to examine 139 bodies between 24 and 31 July 2023.

Out of the 139 bodies examined, 96 of them have been claimed or collected by their families, while 43 are still awaiting collection.

“In order to ensure uninterrupted service and speedy examination of bodies and their release to families without delay, the members of the task team are providing this support function on a 24-hour and seven days a week basis until we have for the next 30 days while we finalise other processes,” said the MEC.

Currently, there are no backlogs of post-mortems in any of our mortuaries across the province, said the MEC.

The department is also recruiting specialists to fill vacant positions.

“Another ongoing process of recruitment is underway. We will soon advertise 7 newly created positions of doctors who will be placed across FPS mortuaries in the province,” she said.

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“In addition, through the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, we are recruiting 200 unemployed young people to assist in converting written post-mortems reports into digital files. This move will assist the judiciary in deciding on cases admitted to court while reducing SAPS case backlog, especially those that are murder related.”