Struggle to identify 19 patients’ bodies

Police are encountering unexpected obstacles in their efforts to identify 19 bodies believed to be those of psychiatric patients who died after being transferred from Life Esidimeni centres to NGOs in Gauteng.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said yesterday the bodies had come from NGOs but remained unidentified months later.

He was speaking at a media conference on how his department was implementing recommendations made by health ombudsman Malegapuru Makgoba following the deaths of 94 mentally ill patients.

Makgoba found that NGOs to which the patients were transferred were unlicensed and many were ill-equipped to care for the mentally ill.

The 19 unidentified bodies were not included in the initial tally of 94 dead.

In one case of an unidentified body‚ fingerprints linked the body to a family but when police visited the family‚ they denied knowing the person.

The family would not give the police DNA samples to help identify the body‚ Motsoaledi said.

He said he hoped families would have come forward by now, given the huge media attention given to the Life Esidimeni saga.

But he admitted that all over the world, families abandoned mentally ill patients.

“At some stage, a decision might have to be taken by the police to bury the bodies in line with the law‚” he said.

The Department of Health and medical experts are working to find the right institutions to house about 700 patients who remain at NGOs.

Motsoaledi said all NGOs would be shut down as recommended by Makgoba but the department would not rush to move patients out of NGOs‚ to avoid a repeat of the chaos that had led to patient deaths.

Makgoba has given the health department 45 days to apply his recommendations.

Following assessment by health department staff‚ seven NGOs have already been closed.

Life Healthcare said one of its Esidimeni facilities could take 75 patients in the next week and would need eight weeks to get ready to take more.