A number of patients at Bali’s Negara General Hospital have been complaining that they’ve had to fight to hold their breath and cover their noses because the smell of corpses is just too overwhelming. (Excuse us while we go vomit in a corner.)
The complaints have apparently been going on for the past month due to a mortuary freezer that seems to be broken.
“Yes, there’s definitely a smell. Especially when you want to eat, you feel disgusted because of the corpse smell of ‘Mr. X.’” This ‘Mr. X’ appears to be the main body in the mortuary emitting a smell.
“It’s not just me, my family also complained about the smell,” Iwan, 34, one of dozens of hospital patients in a ward near the mortuary, told Tribun Bali.
“The smell” has not escaped the attention of local government officials. A group of Jembrana DPRD (regional council members) visited the hospital not long ago because of constituents’ complaints. Leader of Commission C DPRD Ida Bagus Made Susrama says he immediately asked Negara to clean up the smell and fix the damage.
“I ask that this issue be resolved because I pity the patients and people waiting here. They are disrupted from the smell,” Susrama told Tribun.
The head of quality control for the hospital, I Gede Ambara Putra, acknowledged that the mortuary’s freezer has been damaged for the past month and explained that the hospital has been using the same freezer since the rumah sakit was built decades ago—no wonder they’re having problems.
“Actually, we have put forward for the provision of new equipment and the new stuff will come in 2016. It’s broken twice,” Putra said.
He added that the hospital is currently coordinating with Jembrana Police to deposit the body of ‘Mr. X.’
We hope they get that taken care of ASAP. Not exactly something they should skimp on.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
