Covid morgue staying open

PLAN TO COPE WITH SECOND-WAVE CASUALTIES

A CORONAVIRUS morgue is to be kept open until spring in Nottingham as the city and county enters the second wave of the pandemic.

During the first wave earlier this year, the city and county together set up a temporary morgue in Mansfield, which was not used.

Now the two councils have said a site will remain in use in the city. The exact location of the morgue is not being disclosed, but is understood to be in the north of the city.

A technical document, known as a “reasonable worst-case scenario”. has urged councils to prepare for an increase in deaths during the second wave.

A council report says: “The revised plan for wave two urges councils to plan for many more excess deaths but it is currently expected that the facility in Nottingham should meet the needs suggested.”

A plan, set to be voted on next week by the city council, will see funding for the scheme approved – this can later be claimed back by the Government, which has made local councils responsible for such facilities.

It said the money was to “maintain the dignity of death management process, which would include expenditure on body storage”.’

A council report says: “It was decided that the site at Crown Farm, Mansfield, be decommissioned after the first wave of Covid-19 and a smaller site commissioned in Nottingham.

“The Nottingham facility will be available until April 2021, this being in line with the Government’s revised reasonable worst case scenario for ‘wave two’ excess deaths.

“The council is monitoring capacity weekly, and if the body storage capacity is not under stress over winter we will move to decommission the Nottingham site.

“If data shows that the store is required after April, a new business case will be brought forward.

“The provision of body storage facilities, on the scale required, has not been undertaken before and, therefore, there was no existing agreement as to how this cost would be allocated between Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council, both having responsibility for public health and emergency planning.

“The provision of the Mansfield body storage facility was undertaken at great pace and received praise as ‘best practice’ from the Government as to the efficiency of the operation.

“There was, inevitably, a national shortage of the specialised equipment necessary for such a facility.

“Although the final cost of the two facilities won’t be known until April 2021 it is estimated at £3.254m, the city council has forecast its share of the costs as £1.139m (35 percent) and this figure has now been agreed with Nottinghamshire County Council, which has paid all expenses to date.

“Fortunately, the facility at Mansfield was not used, as the plan provided by the Government at the time of the commissioning of Crown

Farm, proved to be more pessimistic than reality.

“Nevertheless, during March, work showed a clear danger of there being insufficient body storage across the county-wide area if the scenario had even been partially met. The revised scenario for wave two urges councils to plan for many more excess deaths but it is currently expected that the facility in Nottingham should meet the needs suggested by the RWCS.”

Councillor Sally Longford, deputy leader of Nottingham City Council, said: “The Mansfield facility was secured until last month and was deemed too large and costly when thankfully it turned out that Government projections for death rates had been overly pessimistic.

“It was therefore agreed to set up a smaller facility in the north of the city as part of our resilience planning with the county council, in the event of a second wave coinciding with annual winter pressures resulting in excess deaths.”