There is a public uproar on social media about the current state of the mortuary at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
With the solemnity that death exudes, one would expect that the temporal place where mortal remains are kept until burial reflects same.
However, the scene at the Korle Bu Hospital morgue as captured by GhOne TV’s Godwin Asediba in a new documentary detailing the prevailing conditions in Ghana’s mortuaries tells a different story.
“From the outside, it’s hard to imagine the sheer number of corpses piled up inside the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Mortuary. But as one draws closer reality begins to dawn. A pungent and heady smell, yet these mortuary attendants are busy at work having become immune over time,” the journalist opens his documentary.
With glaring images of vile scenes that needed few words to describe the condition in the mortuary of one of Ghana’s premier hospitals, viewers of the documentary are treated to the reality of an unsanitary environment that houses hundreds of mortal remains.
From piled-up bodies overflowing around the mortuary fridges to the floor, and the maggot-infested drains being fed with likely infectious human excreta, the documentary paints another reality of the risk mortuary attendants bear in discharging their duties in such conditions.
The image of the body of an innocent baby rotting away on the floor of the mortuary does nothing less but tells of a nation that has in many ways failed the men that are born into it, even in the days of their afterlife.
The documentary which aired on Saturday, April 30, 2022, has since elicited various public responses including a social media campaign calling for attention to be paid to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital mortuary.
Using the hashtag #FixTheSickMortuaries, several Ghanaians on social media, including celebrities and prominent personalities, are calling on authorities to cause a change in the state of mortuaries across the country.
Some celebrities who have waded into the conversation include Sarkodie, Stonebwoy and MzVee.
See some #FixTheSickMortuaries tweets below: