DA Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom is reported to have reached out to the health department about the backlog in autopsies at Hillbrow mortuary.

It is reported that bodies take time to be released to their families because post-mortems have not been performed on them.

FAMILIES FRUSTRATED

Bloom said that all cases of unnatural death are supposed to be sent to the state mortuaries for a post-mortem, which should be done within two days but now it's taking longer. 

"Families are anguished as the bodies of their loved ones are not released. This issue needs to be resolved urgently. The backlog at Hillbrow has grown to about 100 bodies, and families are waiting for more than a week before the body is released," he said. 

BODIES DECOMPOSED 

Bloom said families and mortuaries complained that some bodies are released when they are in a state of decomposition. 

"In one case, the family of a man who was murdered on Sunday 16 July are still waiting to bury him. Funeral parlours also complaining that bodies are sometimes released in a decomposed state,' Bloom claimed. There is a general problem of poor management and staff shortages at the nine mortuaries run by the Gauteng Health Department, but the Hillbrow seems to be worst affected,' he reflected on the crisis.