Gurugram, March 10 -- At least four freezers at the mortuary in Badshah Khan Civil Hospital in Faridabad had been lying defunct for nearly a week, forcing families to buy ice blocks to preserve the bodies of their deceased relatives, officials said. Two of the malfunctioning freezers were repaired on Monday, Faridabad chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Jayant Ahuja said. "The other two had issues in the compressors, which will soon be sourced from Ambala," he told HT. To be sure, the Badshah Khan Civil Hospital mortuary has 14 freezers. Dr Ahuja said the issue came to light after the facility received 16 bodies for autopsy in a single day, causing the freezers to malfunction due to excessive load. He said the team responded swiftly by expediting the autopsy process and handing over the bodies to families at the earliest. According to him, only one family had to arrange ice blocks for the deceased. In 2024, Faridabad Civil Hospital had reported a similar issue, with eight of its 18 mortuary freezers found to be non-functional. The situation in Faridabad reflects a broader challenge across Haryana, where hospitals in several districts are facing problems related to mortuary infrastructure, officials said. The state health department has begun taking steps to address the issue, they added. In Gurugram, the health department will soon make a new mortuary functional at the Pataudi subdivisional hospital, Gurugram CMO Lokveer Singh said on Monday. "All the equipment has been installed, and autopsies related to road accidents and police cases from areas of Manesar, Farrukhnagar, and Pataudi will take place in the new centre. This would be a major relief to families who presently are required to travel to Gurugram Civil Hospital in Sector 12 for the same purpose," Singh told HT. Officials said the new facility is expected to reduce the burden on the Gurugram Civil Hospital mortuary and cut travel time for families from several surrounding areas. Separately, an autopsy centre has also been developed in Sohna, as the mortuary at Sohna Civil Hospital is yet to become fully functional. The mortuary at Sohna had earlier been declared dilapidated by the Public Works Department (PWD) and was demolished last year to allow construction of improved infrastructure. At the time, officials and relatives had said families were forced to travel nearly 30 kilometres to get autopsies conducted. In September last year, HT had reported that the roof of the mortuary in Civil Hospital Sohna was leaking. Dr Alka Singh, the then CMO, had said a new temporary facility would be set up on the hospital premises within a month. Meanwhile, on Monday, Lokveer Singh said the health department would consider establishing additional mortuaries and autopsy centres in districts where required. A senior health official at Badshah Khan Civil Hospital, requesting anonymity, said that whenever a freezer unit develops a fault, the mortuary staff immediately inform the regional medical officer and initiate contingency measures. "We arrange portable freezer boxes and ice blocks to preserve the bodies until the issue is resolved," the official said. The official added that such measures are only temporary. "These are stop-gap arrangements. The priority is to repair the faulty unit at the earliest so that normal storage capacity is restored," the official said....