Eight persons come forward to claim abandoned bodies at GPHC
Nov 08, 2024
Eight persons come forward to claim abandoned bodies at GPHC
Kaieteur News- Families have come forward to claim eight of the 25 bodies that have been abandoned at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Last week, GPHC said about 25 unclaimed bodies are in the morgue. Director of Medical and Professional Services at the GPHC Dr. Navindranauth Rambaran confirmed that the eight bodies have been claimed.
During an interview with Kaieteur News on Thursday, Ramabaran said, “since we have re-advertised, we have gotten quite a number of persons, I think up to eight relatives have come forward.”
The doctor further explained that the hospital has a system and policy in place that mandates a series of procedures if a deceased body remains unclaimed for one week. Once this timeframe has passed, the records department is notified, and they, in turn would reach out to the Public Relations (PR) Department. The PR department then publicises the necessary information to help individuals recognise if the deceased is their relative. “…after a reasonable period usually up to two weeks, we will consider the body unclaimed and move towards a consideration… (of) burial (Burial by state / GPHC),” Dr. Rambaran told Kaieteur News.
The director stated that there are always challenges in establishing contact with the families of deceased individuals. He explained that the hospital’s Social Work Department makes every effort to track down the families based on the information available, although there are instances where the details are limited, particularly when patients arrive unconscious or with trauma-related injuries.
In such cases, the hospital does its best to publish whatever information is available, including photographs of the patients, to aid in identification. However, for a variety of reasons, including communication barriers and the unavailability of relatives, there are often difficulties in reaching out to the families.
Furthermore, he said that while incidents of unclaimed bodies occur throughout the year, the current situation appears to be an unusual and inadvertent build-up. This is the first time the hospital has faced a number of 25 unclaimed bodies, despite having a system in place to manage these cases.
Dr. Rambaran asserted, “… But for overall, there may be other factors that contribute to it but this is the first time we had like 25 bodies but we don’t expect this to be the norm.”
(Eight persons come forward to claim abandoned bodies at GPHC)
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