The Clinical Director of the Eastern Regional Hospital, Dr. Foster Amponsah-Manu has debunked claims that the corpse of a COVID-19 patient has gone from the facility.
He said the facility is rather looking into a situation where the corpse of a COVID-19 patient was handed to the bereaved family in the absence of environmental officers.
According to him, the ideal situation requires that an environmental officer is present before such a body is released to the family.
There was drama on Sunday, March 14, 2021, after environmental officers from the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly found that the body of a COVID-19 patient was released to a family by mortuary workers without their approval.
This sparked reports that the body had gone missing from the facility.
But explaining the development to Citi News, the Clinical Director at the Eastern Regional Hospital Dr Foster Amponsah-Manu said the hospital was investigating the matter and will not shield anyone found culpable.
He added that the body had been duly disinfected and embalmed according to COVID-19 safety protocols.
“At the time of the release of the body from the mortuary to the relative, there was no environmental officer present even though arrangements had been made with the environmental officer. What we are doing now is to ascertain the reason why the officer was not present at the time the body was being released to the relatives,” he explained.
“All the protocols that were supposed to be taken so that the body will not be as infectious as it would be, were taken. It was disinfected with chlorine, and we did the COVID-19 embalmment. The body was supposed to be released in the presence of the environmentsl officer and that is where the issue was so the body was not missing as the news was,” he added.