Police Hospital Needs More Pathologists

The Police Hospital in Accra is currently faced with severe shortage of qualified pathologists to handle the many cases currently confronting it. According to the administrator, DSP Joseph Owusu-Bempah, the hospital, which is one of the leading medical facilities in the country, currently has only one pathologist who carries out more than 30 autopsy cases daily. Briefing the Daily Graphic newspaper in Accra about the numerous unidentified bodies at the hospital's morgue, he said that there were 40 corpses which nobody had come forward to identify and accept to bury. According to DSP Owusu-Bempah, though some of the dead were brought in by relatives, they failed to come for them because of financial constraints even after several reminders from the hospital. He said the situation had led to a financial burden on the hospital, since it had to bear the responsibility of paying for the land for a mass burial. DSP Owusu-Bempah stressed that the longer bodies remained in the mortuary also caused unnecessary congestion, especially when relatives were not fulfilling their financial obligations. The hospital administrator observed that majority of the dead were alleged armed robbers who had been victims of mob attacks, explaining that due to that unfortunate situation, their relatives failed to show up even when announcements were made in the media. The administrator, therefore, announced that a mass burial would be carried out on Saturday, April 4, 2008.