Crematoriums brace for 24/7 operation
Measure part of plan to avoid backlog of bodies as province copes with COVID-19
Ontario crematoriums have been ordered to prepare to operate round-the-clock to ensure that dead bodies are not “stockpiled” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bereavement Authority of Ontario, the agency that licenses and regulates funeral homes, crematoriums and cemeteries, issued the directive earlier this month as part of its wide-ranging response to COVID -19.
“All crematoriums in Ontario must be ready to operate all day, every day, seven days a week,” said the order signed by bereavement authority chief executive Carey Smith.
The directive is part of a COVID-19 response plan, he said, designed “to ensure that no stockpiling of bodies occurs — all in the name of safety for families and licensees.
“We know this places an extra and significant burden on you and your staff,” Smith told the province’s crematorium operators, “but it is necessary during this state of emergency.”
Ontario reported 51 COVID -19-related deaths Wednesday, its largest single-day increase.
In an interview Wednesday, Smith said the bereavement authority has introduced an unprecedented surge plan to deal with the increased number of dead in the province.
The Expedited Death Response Plan came into effect Tuesday. It streamlines the process by which funeral home workers pick up a body from a hospital or long-term care home, and makes it easier for funeral directors to complete the paperwork necessary to arrange a burial or interment.
Medical death certificates and burial warrants can now be faxed or emailed instead of hand-delivered.
“The strategy is not to store bodies,” Smith explained. “The strategy is to get them out of a health-care setting as soon as someone passes — so that you’re relieving the burden on the health-care system — and put them into the hands of people trained to look after them, and get them to disposition quickly.”
Crematoriums play an essential role in that process since most Ontarians are cremated when they die. In 2018, Canada’s cremation rate was 72.1 per cent.
Smith said the province wants to avoid scenes like those witnessed in Italy, where stockpiled bodies of COVID-19 victims were picked up by military convoy and stored in churches. Italian funeral homes suffered from coffin shortages and staffing problems when infections spread among their employees.
Ontario’s expedited deathresponse plan aims to get bodies quickly and safely out of healthcare facilities. Funeral homes are now expected to respond to a hospital within one hour of being notified about a body, and within three hours when the call comes from a long-term care home.
Funeral home workers will not be allowed into hospitals. They will accept the body at an outside staging area while wearing personal protective equipment.
Smith has also directed funeral homes to limit the number of mourners inside a home to a total of 10 people. The bereavement authority wants to avoid a repeat of the situation in Newfoundland, where more than 140 cases of COVID -19 were traced to a single funeral home in St. John’s.
It’s also imperative, Smith said, that funeral homes avoid outbreaks, since one staff member with COVID-19 can shutter a facility for weeks. While Ontario’s funeral homes have the capacity to deal with the projected number of deaths during the pandemic, those assumptions “are based on funeral homes staying online,” he said.
Planning for an influx of COVID-19 deaths began in early March when the bereavement authority canvassed casket manufacturers, chemical companies, crematoriums and funeral homes to ensure the system could be ramped up to meet the projected demand.
Funeral homes, he said, face two main challenges: obtaining enough protective equipment for staff, and bringing in enough revenue to cover the requirement for round-theclock services.
Most homes, Smith said, earn the bulk of their revenue through visitation and funerals, but many families are deciding to forgo those services during the pandemic. It means, he said, that funeral home revenues are falling at the same time that he has ordered them to make staff available 24 hours a day
As a result, Smith said, he has asked the province to provide special funding to the bereavement sector in recognition of its essential role during the pandemic.
COVID-19 has placed significant pressure on funeral homes in small towns, such as Almonte and Bobcaygeon, where long-term care homes have had fatal outbreaks.
In Almonte, Josh Gamble, owner of the C.R. Gamble Funeral Home, said his facility has enough protective equipment and staff to handle those demands. “We are completely ready,” he said.
Ontario has about 600 licensed funeral homes.
The strategy is to get (bodies) out of a health care setting as soon as someone passes.