An outback hospital has revealed six stillborn babies have been left unclaimed in its morgue for up to five years.
Katherine Hospital, in the Northern Territory, made the startling admission during a Senate inquiry into stillbirths.
All six were stillborn at the hospital over a five-year period to 2017, with two of the babies in the morgue since 2013, The Guardian Australia reported.
Three babies remain in the morgue, while three were only buried this year.
Northern Territory Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, the Chair of Select Committee on Stillbirth Research and Education, has demanded answers.
A Senate inquiry into stillbirths has this month held public hearings in Katherine (pictured), Brisbane and Canberra
Katherine Hospital, in the Northern Territory, revealed six stillborn babies have been left unclaimed in its morgue for up to five years (stock image)
‘Who is responsible here?’ she said.
Ms McCarthy said parents needed to be provided with support services such as grief counselling and information on their rights in relation to the burial of a child.
‘If those resources are lacking that enables a child to lay dead in a morgue for five or six years, there is a serious question about humanity that is not being answered here,’ she said.
Sara Potter, the hospital’s clinical nursing midwife, told the committee Katherine did not offer mothers of stillborn babies ‘wraparound services available elsewhere’.
She said the hospital has a single social worker and one Aboriginal liaison officer but they were mainly tasked with emergencies.
The hospital also has no Aboriginal midwives and just two Aboriginal health practitioners.
Northern Territory Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy (pictured) said ‘there is a serious question about humanity’ in response to Katherine Hospital’s revelations
Ms Potter added Katherine residents had been faced with expensive burial costs, above the $2,199.83 one-off bereavement payment offered by Centrelink.
Up until last year, the town had just one funeral business which charged $4,000, with a second business beginning this year which charges $2,500.
‘As of a year ago, the Centrelink payment wouldn’t have got the baby buried. The payment didn’t cover the cost of what the funeral services are,’ Ms Potter said.
The committee, which was established in March, has this month held public hearings in Katherine, Brisbane and Canberra.
It is due to report on the future of stillbirth research and education in Australia in early 2019.