There is a public uproar on social media about the current state of the mortuary at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

With the solemnity that death exudes, one would expect that the temporal place where mortal remains are kept until burial reflects same.

However, the scene at the Korle Bu Hospital morgue as captured by GhOne TV’s Godwin Asediba in a new documentary detailing the prevailing conditions in Ghana’s mortuaries tells a different story.

“From the outside, it’s hard to imagine the sheer number of corpses piled up inside the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Mortuary. But as one draws closer reality begins to dawn. A pungent and heady smell, yet these mortuary attendants are busy at work having become immune over time,” the journalist opens his documentary.

With glaring images of vile scenes that needed few words to describe the condition in the mortuary of one of Ghana’s premier hospitals, viewers of the documentary are treated to the reality of an unsanitary environment that houses hundreds of mortal remains.

From piled-up bodies overflowing around the mortuary fridges to the floor, and the maggot-infested drains being fed with likely infectious human excreta, the documentary paints another reality of the risk mortuary attendants bear in discharging their duties in such conditions.

The image of the body of an innocent baby rotting away on the floor of the mortuary does nothing less but tells of a nation that has in many ways failed the men that are born into it, even in the days of their afterlife.

The documentary which aired on Saturday, April 30, 2022, has since elicited various public responses including a social media campaign calling for attention to be paid to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital mortuary.

Using the hashtag #FixTheSickMortuaries, several Ghanaians on social media, including celebrities and prominent personalities, are calling on authorities to cause a change in the state of mortuaries across the country.

Some celebrities who have waded into the conversation include Sarkodie, Stonebwoy and MzVee.

See some #FixTheSickMortuaries tweets below:

@mohgovgh @NAkufoAddo is it that you are equally as shocked about the state of Korle Bu Mortuary and have nothing to say so far or your silence means you pretty much don’t care? #FixTheSickMortuaries #korlebu

— Ondiro Oganga (@OndiroOganga) May 2, 2022

A caller sent chills down my spine on @Starr1035Fm #MorningStarr He visited the Korle Bu public morgue in 1985. What he saw and experienced is the same @GodwinAsediba reported in 2022. This cannot be normal. 37 years of a problem cannot be an accident. #FixSickMortuaries

— Francis Abban (@francis_abban) May 2, 2022

It’s high time all Directors and CEOs with fat Salaries and allowances be properly Monitored and controlled to sit up at their various positions. Expensive Healthcare yet unhealthy Health environments and uncomfortable condition service for field workers #FixTheSickMortuaries

— ENTECHPRICE LAPTOPS GHANA (@Entechprice_Gh) May 2, 2022

President NanaAddo please fix the deplorable morgues for us we know you won’t end up there but some of us and our loved ones will #FixTheSickMortuaries

— Beware malazy (@DerrickOkai13) May 2, 2022

The reporter and camera crew at @GHOneTV who covered the Korle Bu morgue story should be given some serious psychotherapy. They might get PTSD later. #FixTheSickMortuaries

— SonOfAGariSeller (@gariseller) May 2, 2022

The day we stop privatizing our public problems this republic will work. Till then it’s a headache nation. #FixTheSickMortuaries

— Francis Abban (@francis_abban) May 2, 2022

Thanks for sharing #FixTheSickMortuaries https://t.co/g54VjGhruB

— n (@thenanaaba) May 1, 2022

I may be wrong but the management of the Korle Bu teaching hospital is top of my list of people we should be calling out for the deplorable state of the morgue before Nana Addo. How do you oversee a facility in this state? What is your role at all? #FixTheSickMortuaries

— Sung ???????????? (@ndeme_sung) May 1, 2022

So many things could go wrong and just like Covid .. we might find ourselves battling similar illness #FixTheSickMortuaries https://t.co/BNt0YHc9sP

— Mr Drew (@mrdrewofficial) May 1, 2022