The Mortuaries and Funeral Facilities Agency has revealed that neither public nor private mortuary facilities in the country have obtained the necessary license for operation as mandated by the Health Institutions and Facilities Act, 2011 (Part 2).
The agency has identified a total of 232 mortuaries currently in operation across the country, with the possibility of additional facilities emerging in the future.
“None of these 232 mortuaries is licensed to operate per the law,” the Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Dr Yaw Twerefour, told the Daily Graphic, adding that “licences will tell you how to operate.”
In pursuit of enforcing the act and bringing proper regulation to the mortuary system, the agency, under the leadership of Dr. Twerefour, has established standards that align with the law. These standards are intended to streamline the operations of mortuary operators.
Dr. Twerefour emphasized that the agency would share these standards with relevant stakeholders. Subsequently, operators will have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the standards. Following this, a grace period will be provided for operators to prepare for inspections, culminating in the issuance of licenses to compliant facilities.
“By the end of the next quarter, we would have engaged everybody for them to know what they are expected to do,” Dr Twerefour said.
After that, he said, they would be given three months to put their houses in order in terms of licensing.
“After all of this, when we come to your premises and you still don’t comply or you don’t fall within what we have, then you don’t have any business on the field,” he said.
The agency, established in accordance with Part Two of Act 829, assumes the responsibility of licensing, overseeing, and regulating facilities associated with the storage, transportation, and disposal of human remains. This includes functions such as evaluating and approving license applications for both facilities and practitioners.
The practitioners eligible for licensing encompass a wide range of roles, from pathologists and embalmers to funeral home directors, mortuary attendants, and many others. Facilities that require licensing include cold storage facilities for human remains, mortuaries, crematoria, funeral homes, columbaria, cemeteries, and various transportation services like hearses.
This regulatory framework is intended to ensure proper oversight and compliance within the sector.
Dr Twerefour said the facilities had standards they were supposed to meet, adding that, “for instance, if I come to your morgue, I need to know the composition of management, the registration — who are the owners, their financial capacity, your vision, your mission, infection prevention control, security, backup water and backup generator”.
According to Dr. Twerefour, a contingency tank must have the capacity to sustain the facility’s operations for a full week. This entails the need for a substantial tank since water is a crucial resource for the proper functioning of mortuaries.
“So if I come and you don’t have a storage tank of a certain capacity, you are out; you can’t work.
Even if you have a borehole, you must have a storage tank since that could fail and may not be able to pump water,” he explained.
Dr. Twerefour emphasized that the absence of standards had created a scenario in which individuals could commit crimes, such as murder, dispose of the victims’ bodies at any mortuary, and then disappear without a trace. Consequently, this practice led to bodies remaining in mortuaries for extended periods and ultimately being classified as unclaimed, frequently culminating in mass burials.
He further noted that the lack of standards resulted in certain facilities accepting bodies indiscriminately without conducting inquiries into their origins or adhering to other necessary procedures.
“Now, who is checking them, nobody.
So now it’s a free-for-all field and people are just doing what they like.
He pointed out that while some morgues were inclined to adhere to proper protocols, they sometimes felt compelled to relax their standards due to the lack of compliance by others in the industry.
Dr. Twerefour underscored that licensing morgues would have an additional benefit in regulating unlicensed hearses. These unlicensed vehicles would undergo scrutiny to determine if they met the legal requirements. Consequently, this measure, along with other initiatives, would lead to a cascading effect, streamlining activities within the sector.
“But the ultimate goal is to go digital such that when I sit in my office I can know how many bodies entered the cemetery in the Western Region on a daily basis.
This is because once you enter you have to key in the information, real-time information,” he said.
Dr Twerefour disclosed that the infrastructure to that effect was being developed.
“By the end of the year we would have started licensing all the facilities – hearses, morgues, crematoriums, mausoleums.
“This is a new dawn, things are changing; it is either you join us or you fall out.
I am for collaboration; I am not here to kill or destroy anybody’s business.
I am here to support and set the standards; either you meet the standards or you drop out,” he emphasised.