The Mortuaries and Funeral Facilities Agency (MoFFA) has organized a training workshop for mortuary attendants in the Ashanti Region.

Held at the Region's capital, Kumasi, on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, the event brought together all mortuary workers in the region who were taking through best mortuary practices to prevent outbreaks of diseases.

Aim of the workshop

Speaking to OTEC news reporter, Jacob Agyenim Boateng at the sidelines of the event, the Registrar for MoFFA, Yaw Twerefour revealed that the workshop was geared towards supporting mortuary attendants in achieving excellent management in their work.

"The training provides a guide to best practices in the yes of documented procedures and processes. Participants have been equipped with the requisite information for the prevention of diseases while discharging their duties", he said.

Number of beneficiaries

Yaw Tewerefour disclosed that some 800 mortuary attendants have been trained across the country so far.

He noted that MoFFA will continue to scrutinise the standards and quality of every stakeholder involved in the care and preparation of the deceased, adding that the training will introduce quality management processes specified to mortuary operations to ensure that all stakeholders understand how to achieve consistency of quality managed standards.

Enforcement

He further said that the standards will soon be made known to the stakeholders by the next quarter after which they will be given time for inspection and their subsequent licensing.

He added that after this had been done, the agency would not take it lightly with facilities that will fail to comply with the standards.

Standards

In specific terms, MoFFA, which is established under Part Two of Act 829 seeks to license facilities such as old storage facilities for human remains, mortuaries, funeral homes, crematoria, columbaria, mausoleums, cemeteries, and hearses.

Also, the practitioners who are to be licensed include pathologists, autopsy assistants, embalmers, funeral home directors, mortuary attendants, undertakers, cremators, hearse service providers, and drivers.

Touching on the need for the licensing regime, Yaw Twerefour mentioned that it will among others weed out unlicensed hearses and ensure a chain reaction by streamlining activities in the sector.