Durban — The Public Protector South Africa (PPSA) has launched an own-initiative systemic investigation to focus on new issues not covered in the initial investigation concerning the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary (Phoenix Mortuary) following new complaints of forensic pathology malpractices.
Over the last few days, there have been numerous reports on the state of the mortuary.
It has been alleged that bodies were piling up.
On Saturday, sister publication the Independent on Saturday (IOS) reported that political parties have demanded a full investigation into the Phoenix mortuary, where dozens of smelling corpses have been piling up, some since the violence that engulfed KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng last year.
The IOS said that when approached for comment, the head of the provincial portfolio committee on health, Nomakiki Majola, claimed to be unaware of the problems. However, the KZN Department of Health acknowledged numerous challenges at the medico-legal mortuary.
In a statement on Friday, the public protector said that widely publicised information suggests that staff at the facility lack basic tools of the trade, supplies and protective equipment.
It has also been alleged that certain medical apparatus was no longer in good working condition, leading to occupational health and safety hazards; and that the intake of bodies was not commensurate with the capacity of fridges, resulting in corpses lying on the floors.
The public protector said that recent revelations about the alleged state of affairs at the Phoenix facility are a source of grave concern for the PPSA when viewed against a report on the implementation of the remedial action received in June 2019 from then acting head of the department, Dr M Gumede.
Dr Gumede’s report gave the impression that the department was seized with the implementation of the remedial action. The PPSA believes that had the remedies been implemented as suggested by Dr Gumede, conditions at the Phoenix facility as reported would have been different.
“The PPSA and the provincial government discussed the matter on Friday. They agreed that teams from both sides will meet in the coming week to identify all outstanding work out of Dr Gumede’s report for implementation in a shorter period, considering the time that has lapsed since the release of the PPSA report of 2019,” the public protector said.
“The PPSA has also launched a new own-initiative systemic investigation to focus on new issues not covered in the initial investigation concerning the Phoenix facility. In this regard, investigators will be writing to the department, requesting a response to the allegations. The team will also request a meeting with the department and labour unions before visiting the site of the facility to conduct an inspection-in-loco.”
The public protector said the complaints come a little over three years since the release of a March 2019 Public Protector SA investigation report which revealed widespread problems in government mortuaries across the province, including the Phoenix facility.
“Among other things, the investigation established at the time a lack of well-trained and experienced forensic pathologists, insufficient equipment, poor co-operation between the SAPS and pathology services on pauper burials and delays in issuing post-mortem reports. These were found at the time to have prejudiced bereaved families,” the public protector said.
It said that the report followed a systemic investigation into alleged improper conduct and legislative non-compliance by the department, leading to substandard public service delivery at the facilities in question.
Similar to the latest complaints, the complainants in the initial matter, Medical Rights Advocacy Network, had alleged in May 2015 that bodies piled up on floors, in trolleys and trays. In addition to the Phoenix facility, that investigation covered Gale Street, Pinetown, Pietermaritzburg and Port Shepstone mortuaries.
The public protector said that to remedy the maladministration, the head of the provincial Health Department, among other authorities, was directed at the time to ensure that there was quarterly monitoring of mortuaries to ensure compliance with all relevant legal prescripts; verify the number of vacant administrators’ posts at all provincial mortuaries, and provide the public protector with a detailed report on measures put in place to capacitate the facilities.
The department head also had to develop a standard operating procedure for the use and safe-keeping of mortuary equipment, including security measures to prevent theft of the equipment, the public protector said.
Daily News