Draft of standards for morgues issued

Draft of standards for morgues issued

• Source: Global Times
• [08:44 March 24 2011]
• Comments

By Yan Shuang

Hospital morgues will need to abide by industry standards in the future, as the city's civil affairs authorities have issued China's first draft regulation for them.

Funeral service details will require a client's signature of approval, and prices should be transparent, the draft says.

"The administration of morgues is a mess because there are too many authorities involved... That's why the prices and services at morgues are not well-regulated," said Huang Shaoquan, media spokesperson of the Funeral and Interment Department of the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau.

The Beijing News reported on March 15, 2010, that most of the 119 morgues in Beijing's medical institutions were managed by public funeral parlors, but in fact nearly 90 percent of the morgues are privately operated, according to a source within the civil affairs bureau.

Beijing only has 12 funeral parlors, too few to meet demand in Beijing, where around 80,000 bodies are cremated yearly, Wang Qi, director of the funeral and interment department, was quoted as saying by the Beijing Morning Post on February 19.

"All the private managers of morgues have connections with the hospitals or the parlors, and they have made the industry more disorderly," Huang told the Global Times. "Services at morgues, including shrouds, wreaths and body freezing are charged according to the market and the price can be unaffordable for residents," said Wang.

"For example, putting a shroud on a dead body can cost 500 yuan [$76.23]," Wang said, according to a February 19 Beijing Morning Post report.

The bureau is planning on issuing price standards within this year, and has currently launched pilot programs in eight hospitals' morgues.

"There was no standard price for items such as shrouds, for example, but now we have them, and they are detailed for each type and size," said Li Qinghe, an employee at one pilot morgue.

In addition to pricing requirements, the regulation also includes a set of requirements for the construction and operation of morgues, as well as for the qualifications of morgue employees.

Construction of new morgues or their expansion will require approval from all residents living nearby, and there is a limit on how much noise can be generated at the facility during funeral services, according to the regulation.

Morgue employees should have to acquire certain qualifications, such as certificates for delivering bodies or applying makeup, according to the regulation.

Morgue management varies in different provinces and cities, so having a local regulation in Beijing for the first time means a great deal for the regulation and supervision of this field nationwide, a Quality and Technical Supervision bureau spokesperson told the Legal Mirror Wednesday.