Citizens and residents complain that hospital morgues here are poorly run, do not have adequate storage and fail to inform family members timely. Okaz/Saudi Gazette recently visited some hospital morgues in Makkah and found six unclaimed dead bodies which the Directorate of Health Affairs could not bury because it was still waiting for permission from the official authorities. It was also found that there were no security guards standing at the doors of the morgues and this made anyone easy access. Asian workers were acting as guards. Lack of security was perhaps the cause behind an incident three years ago when a dead body disappeared from a hospital in Makkah. Some citizens say new regulations must be introduced to determine the manner in which corpses are kept and released. Officials from the Directorate of Health Affairs and Civil Defense said there are set procedures for storing a dead body, but procedures for unidentified and unclaimed dead bodies can take longer. A burial permit should be obtained if the whereabouts of the family of the dead person has not been determined. Several mistakes Citizens are also complaining about mistakes made at these facilities. A short while ago an 18-year-old man died in a motorcycle accident and was kept at King Abdul Aziz Hospital morgue in Makkah for more than 18 days. The label stuck on his chamber said “dead body of a Pakistani national”. The family of the deceased kept searching for him. Then an employee at the morgue found out the mistake on the label and the family was informed about their dead son. Abu Majid, a citizen, said he could not find a chamber in the morgue for his relative at King Abdul Aziz Hospital morgue and that he had to take the dead body straight to the cemetery. Abdullah Al-Wasabi criticized the absence of security guards at morgues. “We are used to this situation. When a family member dies, we go to the morgue and keep searching until we find the chamber where the dead body is kept. There is no one there to help you.” Al-Wasabi called on hospitals to follow up on all the dead bodies kept in their morgues until they are delivered to their families and not to keep them waiting for such a long time. About the procedures, a source at the Directorate of Health Affairs in Makkah said that when a dead body is received, the cause of death should be determined first by performing an autopsy and then the Makkah Emirate and Mayoralty should be contacted to start the burial process. This should be done after taking a blood sample, doing a DNA test and storing it in case a relative of the unidentified dead person shows up. The Makkah Mayoralty has contacted hospitals to finalize the burial procedures for unclaimed dead bodies, the source said. The Ministry of Health regulations stipulate that a dead body can be kept in a hospital morgue only for a maximum period of two months. __
