Mortuary space sought as funeral waits increase

MORE mortuary space is being sought by authorities managing the city and county’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Resilience Forum has confirmed it is securing more capacity that should be available in the “coming days and weeks”.

Bosses say it is “mainly” down to there being a longer wait between deaths and funerals.

Tom Purnell, Leicestershire County Council’s assistant chief executive, speaking on behalf of the Local Resilience Forum, said: “The NHS locally, councils and other organisations have been working closely together to prepare for the impact of coronavirus on our mortuaries, crematoria, burial sites and funeral directors to ensure there is sufficient mortuary space at all times.

“We are seeing a potential need for more capacity and are taking action to secure more spaces which should be available in the coming days and weeks.

“This is mainly because we’re seeing a bigger time gap between people passing away and their funeral taking place and also because of the Christmas and New Year period when there are usually fewer funerals, rather than rising death rates.

“The death of a loved one is an incredibly difficult time for families and the current restrictions mean that saying goodbye is very different to what we had imagined.”

Last week, Leicester’s hospitals recorded 79 Covid-related deaths, the most announced in one go since the trust moved to weekly updates.

Stark figures showed there has been one or more coronavirus-related deaths in the city’s hospitals every day since October 26.

Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, Simon Cole, told BBC Radio Leicester last week that mobile storage units were being brought in to deal with the growing number of dead bodies due to Covid-19.

He said: “This week I’ve been in meetings about whether the mortuaries locally are going to be big enough to deal with the expected levels of deaths.

“It’s a pretty stark contrast with somebody who’s having a party, or one of the calls earlier this week with somebody who got their mates round for a curry. That’s just not a good idea at a time when our hospitals are really, really struggling, and where there are a number of people who sadly are dying.”

The LRF has never revealed how many bodies it has the capacity to store.

It is understood there is a temporary mortuary in operation on the site of Leicester’s General Hospital.

Mr Purnell added: “We’re also looking at what else we can do to support bereaved families and have a leaflet with information for bereaved families, friends and carers and that’s available on our website.

“There is also information on gov.uk around funeral arrangements.”