A provision in a draft law regulating healthcare services in Rwanda has drawn criticism from medical professionals for proposing that unclaimed bodies be kept in hospital mortuaries for up to 21 days before burial. They cited related costs and limited space among concerns that should be considered. The proposed legislation stipulates that a healthcare facility may proceed with burial only if three conditions are met: an announcement has been made at least three times in a national agency in charge of broadcasting; a period of 21 days counted from the date of the first announcement has expired; and the healthcare facility has notified the organ in charge of investigation in the area where it is located. ALSO READ: CHUK’s longest-serving morgue attendant who dignifies the dead During a parliamentary session on Wednesday, April 30, where the parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs sought feedback on the bill from healthcare institutions, healthcare professionals raised concerns about the feasibility of the proposed timeframe. Dr. Ernest Munyemana, the Director General of Kibagabaga Hospital in Gasabo District, said the 21-day requirement was unrealistic given the limited capacity of hospital mortuaries. “Considering our mortuary's capacity, when a body remains unclaimed for several days, we quickly run out of space for new cases,” he said. MP Jeannette Uwababyeyi asked hospital managers what they considered a reasonable timeframe for burying unclaimed bodies. Dr. Munyemana explained that the current practice is to announce the death on radio three times. If the body remains unclaimed after 72 hours (three days), the hospital proceeds with burial. He added that the financial burden of public announcements and burial costs fall on the hospital. “Sometimes the police bring unidentified bodies, and we must cover all related costs. If the proposed 21-day period is to be enforced, there should be public mortuaries managed by local authorities for such cases,” he suggested, calling for amendments to ease the pressure on health facilities. ALSO READ: Concerns as medical defaults double to over Rwf1 billion Prof. Lisine Tuyisenge, a paediatrician at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), echoed similar concerns. She said their hospital follows the same arrangement, including the issuance of three announcements, after which the social services unit handles the burial. “Most of the unclaimed bodies are of long-term patients whose relatives have either abandoned them or lacked the means to care for them,” she explained. Dr Violette Ayingeneye, Director General of Kibuye Referral Hospital in Karongi District, said the 21-day period is particularly problematic for her hospital due to its proximity to water bodies like Lake Kivu. “We often receive decomposing corpses recovered from rivers or Lake Kivu. These bodies quickly degrade and damage our refrigerated mortuary units. In some cases, they must be buried within a day,” she said. Speaking to The New Times, Ayingeneye indicated that her hospital has only four mortuary rooms and receives at least five unclaimed bodies each month—a number that rises during the rainy season [due to disaster-related deaths]. The unclaimed corpses include patients without caregivers or abandoned by their families because of failure to pay medical bills, unidentified individuals who died from different communities brought in by authorities such as the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), and victims retrieved from streets or Lake Kivu by police. She said that the daily cost for mortuary service per one corpse at the hospital is Rwf30,400 – due to expenses on electricity and maintenance. That would amount to Rwf638,400 for 21 days – considering the period proposed in the bill. “With costs at Rwf30,400 per night, it’s financially unsustainable to keep bodies for 21 days,” she said. “We are not a budget agency, so we rely on payments from health insurance schemes such as the Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI). But 10 per cent of our patients lack insurance entirely and cannot pay their medical bills.” She urged the government to establish a dedicated agency to handle such cases and relieve hospitals of the burden.
