Operating procedures at the hospital mortuary are being updated to eliminate the possibility of bodies being accidentally swapped as happened last week, Health Minister Chris Fearne has confirmed.

Times of Malta reported on Monday that a mix-up at the Mater Dei Hospital mortuary had led to the burial of the wrong body, with relatives making the shocking discovery when the corpse of their loved one was nowhere to be found.

The Health Ministry subsequently confirmed that a coffin was erroneously released for burial and that an internal investigation to determine what caused the mix-up was under way.

Mr Fearne said that an investigation was immediately launched to determine what had caused the blunder and once this was completed, standard operating procedures would be reviewed and if necessary updated.

The two staff members had been suspended for five days and then reinstated elsewhere until the investigation is completed.

“The incident happened when there actually was no health minister because it happened while I had not yet been officially re-appointed. But we are looking into this and taking necessary action nonetheless,” Mr Fearne told the Times of Malta.

“There is what are called standard operating procedures which help ensure that these things do not happen.

“Following this incident we would also be strengthening these procedures to ensure that it does not happen again.”

On the hospital employees involved, Mr Fearne said that the two staff members had been suspended for five days and then reinstated elsewhere until the investigation is completed.

Last week’s incident was discovered when a granddaughter of one of the two men went to the mortuary to visit her grandfather’s coffin.

Once up close, the woman was shocked to see that the body lying inside the coffin that supposedly belonged to her grandfather, was actually that of another man.