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The CSIF trade union representing members of the Andalusian health service (SAS) staff has denounced a situation that resulted in the distress of some patients at the Hospital Valle del Guadalhorce de Cártama on the outskirts of Malaga. According to the union, at least twice last week patients had "to share rooms with a deceased person for hours". CSIF attributed this to the lack of orderlies, as there are only two for the whole centre during night shifts. The situation has been described as "intolerable", as it takes several hours to transfer the body of the deceased from the ward to the mortuary.
"During the early hours of Thursday morning, two patients died in the internal medicine department and could not be transferred to the mortuary until more than four hours later due to the lack of orderlies. The situation is extremely serious, because during all this time the patients who shared a room with the deceased remained in the same space until there were orderlies available to transfer the body," said the CSIF, adding that "it is not the first time this has happened". "Every time a person dies on the night shift in the internal medicine and palliative care floors from 1am onwards, there is no orderly who can assume the transfer to the mortuary."
The Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, which manages the Guadalhorce centre, has corrected the union, stating that the case concerns only one occasion, not two. "The delay in the transfer was due to a bureaucratic procedure, specifically the lack of the necessary documentation for the issuing of the death certificate, and was in no way related to the actions of the orderly staff," said the hospital board
According to the hospital, the delay was caused by the impossibility, at that time, "to complete the death certificate by the doctor on duty - an essential step in order to proceed with the transfer of the body".
The hospital took the opportunity to remind the public that, when a person dies in an inpatient unit "it takes a reasonable amount of time to inform the family, process the corresponding documentation and, once the official death documentation has been completed and signed by the doctor on duty, proceed to the mortuary" - a task carried out by the centre's orderlies.
The management of the hospital said it deeply regrets "the inconvenience caused and apologises to the patient's companion for the situation experienced", highlighting its commitment to the respect and dignity of patients and their families, as well as to the professionalism of all workers involved in these procedures.
On the other hand, CSIF has warned of cuts in recruitment, which has "pushed the orderlies, whose work is essential for the proper functioning of the hospital, to the limit".
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