Wrong bodies are being handed to families for burial after a staffing and operational collapse at Paphos General Hospital’s mortuary left no one responsible for receiving, logging, preserving or releasing the deceased, according to Phileleftheros sources.
Twelve of the facility’s 20 storage units are currently occupied by unclaimed or unidentified bodies in an advanced state of decomposition, causing severe odour and the spread of bacteria.
Competent sources told Phileleftheros the situation will grow increasingly dangerous unless a decision is taken to reopen and staff the Paphos mortuary and those in other districts.
The collapse stems from a decision taken in March 2025 to centralise autopsies at Nicosia General Hospital, citing a shortage of forensic pathologists.
The reasoning was that transferring bodies from provincial mortuaries to Nicosia would make better use of the limited number of pathologists and save time — a rationale disputed by those involved in the process, since the small number of morticians were instead instructed to travel to Nicosia daily.
The result, Paphos sources told Phileleftheros, is that the mortuary at Paphos General Hospital is severely underperforming and has become, in their words, a health hazard in the semi-basement of the building.
Reliable sources said a significant gap has opened between the moment bodies arrive at the mortuary and are placed in storage units and the moment they are transferred to Nicosia.
With no staff assigned to preservation and the required procedures during that interval, conditions of severe odour have developed over the past year and the refrigeration equipment is failing to maintain the required temperatures.
No one is now responsible for recording the details of the deceased, logging their arrival, preserving them or handing them over to funeral homes and families — a breakdown that has led to the wrong bodies being released for burial.
When a body must be transferred to Nicosia for autopsy, the cost to the state runs to approximately €500 per transfer, paid to the contracted transport companies, with a police escort using force vehicles accompanying each transfer from Paphos to Nicosia.
Sources told Phileleftheros that unless a decision is taken to restore full operations at the Paphos mortuary — and at those in other districts — and to staff them properly, the situation will continue to deteriorate.
