Two funeral companies allegedly mixed up dead bodies at a deathcare facility at Geylang Bahru, according to Facebook page Death Kopitiam Singapore.
Here is what they said
[14 June, 1830hrs] Death Kopitiam Singapore has come to understand that a case of body mix-up involving two funeral companies took place “two days ago” at a deathcare facility at Geylang Bahru. We have reached out to the two funeral companies involved, but we have yet to receive a comment.
Several sources in the industry that we spoke to have confirmed that this incident had indeed taken place between two parties, though we were given the impression that the matter has been resolved, i.e. the body mix-up has been resolved but not without the families being aware of this incident.
It is our understanding this incident took place at a deathcare facility (likely an embalming room) at 88 Geylang Bahru.
Further, based on the name of the company and address that we obtained, it appears that this facility is run and/or belongs to a member of the Association of Funeral Directors Singapore – when we last checked on 14 June 2022, this member/entity where the incident allegedly took place is listed on the Association’s website. However, we note that this entity/facility is not listed as one of the twenty-two licensed funeral parlours with embalming facilities (updated as at May 2022) on NEA’s website.
This incident comes almost two years after the National Environment Agency (NEA) released the “Guidelines for Handling Deceased in the Funeral Parlour”. The guidelines, dated 1st edition June 2020, which includes a requirement to use body identification tags bearing the name and gender of a deceased person, also requires licensees to ensure that embalming rooms are locked at all times and that the licensed parlour must have a system to check that the correct body is being handed over.
Further, the guidelines state that the licensee or an employee must be present always when the body is taken out of the parlour and record this in a register, as stipulated in the Environmental Public Health (Funeral Parlours) Regulations.
It begs the following questions: is this a common occurrence in the industry, and how can we prevent another such incident from happening?
One mix-up is one too many.
