Generator brought by the deceased's family was only used to power mortuary berth - Dr Waqainabete

Minister for Health Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete stresses that the generator which was brought by the family of the woman who died following an asthma attack at Savusavu Hospital was only used to keep the deceased in the mortuary.

Dr Waqainabete says the reason for this is that they could only power three of the six mortuary berths because they were using back-up generators, and all three berths were full.

He says the family only decided to bring their own generator to power another berth for the deceased because there was a concern about the body being decomposed.

Dr Waqainabete adds at no point in time was that particular generator used to power any life-saving equipment in the hospital. The Minister says they have their own generators to do that.

Dr Waqainabete says the deceased was provided with the care that they could and the best option was to take her to the Labasa Hospital but this was not possible due to Tropical Cyclone Ana.