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Neglected mortuary is dying slow death
‘Nothing has been done’ to improve ageing facility
BODIES rotting in broken fridges. Weary morticians lugging corpses about by hand. The putrid stench of death is overwhelming.
It could be a scene from the pages of a 19th-century Gothic novel – a chilling vision to make even Dr Frankenstein shudder.
But this is a portrait of Westminster Mortuary, as told in a shock report to City Hall.
The mortuary’s 98 refrigerators are, according to an inspection in August, “old, inefficient and unreliable”.
A report to Westminster Council cabinet member for community safety, Councillor Danny Chalkley, has revealed health and safety fears that mean the mortuary could lose its licence and be stripped of its status as London’s flagship “disaster” mortuary.
The report demands the dead body freezers “must be replaced” immediately, adding: “The Human Tissue Act licence will be put at risk if the fridges are not replaced as the temperatures of the existing fridges cannot be guaranteed. The existing units are beyond their useful life and are unreliable.”
But following 15 months of haggling over the cost of refurbishment, officials have warned that “nothing has been done”.
Westminster Mortuary includes the Iain West Forensic Suite, named in honour of the flamboyant forensic pathologist who performed post mortems on newspaper proprietor Robert Maxwell and TV presenter Jill Dando. The state-of-the-art suite – a £783,000 extension was opened by Jacqui Smith in March 2008 – is suitable for coping with major incidents because of its 100-body capacity and special “bio hazard” post mortem room.
The report also reveals how mortuary technicians have complained of back injuries because the freezers are stacked too low, forcing them to stoop and lift bodies onto post mortem tables by hand.
Some freezers – which are mostly more than 20 years old – “regularly broke down” and temperatures rose without warning. “Body stores” were beginning to “bow” because they are stacked so high on top of each other.
The council set out in August 2008 to find a contractor for a six-week replacement job at a cost of £140,000 – the procurement process has taken 15 months.
Half the costs, now estimated to be £175,000, will be met by Kensington and Chelsea, which is also responsible for the facility.
A council spokesman added: “There aren’t any immediate safety issues with the fridges; the whole point of the report was to identify issues well in advance so we could plan ahead and factor in the replacement programme in the following financial year. We’re now going through that process and the mortuary will be refitted by the end of March 2010.” |
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