Government Closes Down Connaught Hospital Mortuary Temporarily

The Management of Connaught Hospital, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, has informed the public that the Connaught Hospital Mortuary will be temporarily closed for comprehensive renovation and structural upgrading effective Monday, 21st July 2025, for six (6) weeks.

According to the notice, the initiative is to modernise services and improve the standard of post-mortem care in Sierra Leone, as the Connaught Hospital mortuary served as the country’s principal facility for decades, and it is currently operating with cold storage equipment that has reached the end of its lifecycle. Despite ongoing maintenance and repairs, repeated mechanical failures have rendered continued use unsustainable.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Austin Demby, disclosed that they have acquired 10 brand new mortuary refrigerators to be installed in key hospitals across the country, including Connaught. He added that it is not feasible to place such sensitive, high-performance equipment in structurally compromised facilities with electrical systems that are nearly 50 years old. “We have mobilized resources to rehabilitate the Connaught mortuary, and work will begin immediately.”

The notice showed alternative arrangements with other public health facilities including the 34 Military Hospital, Jui (Chinese) Hospital, and the Police Hospital-to provide temporary preservation and processing of civil and medico-legal corpses during the renovation period. Embalming services at Connaught Hospital will continue exclusively for in-hospital deaths, with a maximum two-day holding period for families to collect their loved ones.