The existing morgue can accommodate 32 bodies at a time. (File Photo) Lack of space to accommodate the dead at the mortuary of Sassoon General Hospital – the largest in the state — has always been a concern, especially during the Covid pandemic that has claimed more than 19,500 lives in Pune district over the past two years. In a month’s time, the state-run hospital’s mortuary will relocate to a new building with a capacity to accommodate at least 150 corpses.
The existing morgue can accommodate 32 bodies at a time. With few mortuaries in Pune – at YCM- Pimpri, AFMC and Aundh district hospital — authorities said it is Sassoon Hospital mainly that is accommodating most bodies with daily post-mortem on 25-30 bodies. Annually, as many as 7,000 post-mortems are performed at the hospital’s mortuary.
“During the second Covid wave, we were handling at least 100 bodies daily (both Covid positive and negative),” a top source at the hospital said. As per the protocol of management of dead bodies of Covid patients, autopsies were generally not performed and the body had to be safely removed from the mortuary to the crematorium within 12 hours.
While there was strain on the infrastructure, the morgue also gets unclaimed bodies that have to be kept for three days before being handed over to civic authorities for disposal. Repairs have been undertaken several times at the cold storage unit over the years.
“There will be three walk-in cold rooms and another 32-35 cold storage cabinets. In the event of a mass casualty incident, there is provision of emergency trays where extra bodies can be kept,” said an official at Sassoon General Hospital.
Now, there will be ten tables in the post-mortem examination room of which one table will be for decomposed bodies. “After post-mortem, mortuary staff are sensitised to prepare the body for a dignified burial or cremation,” said an official.
While it took almost three years and Rs 14 crore to build the new mortuary, there is still a paucity of staff. There is a requirement of at least 13-15 Class IV personnel. At the forensic medicine department, there are eight staffers and one employed on a temporary basis. At least two people are required to lift bodies and also engage in cleaning work. The issue of increasing manpower has been raised at meetings with state medical education minister Amit Deshmukh, officials said.
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