The National Referral Hospital in Honiara in Solomon Islands is to use a container as a temporary morgue.
The Minister of Health and Medical Services, Dr Teutai Kaitu'u, told parliament when answering a question from the MP for Small Malaita, Rick Hou, who wanted to know what progress had been made on the construction of a new morgue for the National Referral Hospital.
Dr Kaitu'u said plans to build a new morgue at the eastern end of the National Referral Hospital have been discarded because the hospital site is prone to natural disasters.
He said the recent earthquake's destruction of parts of the hospital had forced the Ministry to halt the relocation plan.
But he said the new morgue will be built at the new National Referral Hospital, the site of which is yet to be made public.
Dr Kaitu'u said in the interim, a container will be used to supplement the morgue.
MPs had said in Parliament that it is a sad that families are forced to see the bodies of loved ones placed outside the morgue because of a lack of places.
