Long-term-care homes running out of body bags

Ontario long-term-care homes are starting to run out of body bags for their dead residents. As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps through nursing homes, some are struggling to keep up with the needs of residents after death, according to a daily bulletin from the association that represents not-forprofit, municipal and charitable homes.

Advantage Ontario sends its members a “COVID-19 update” every day, reporting on availability of surgical masks, new government directives or help for homes losing workers during the pandemic.

On Tuesday, under the title “Shortages of Body Bags at LTC Homes,” the newsletter pointed to a new problem. “We have heard from some LTC homes that they do not have enough body bags to sustain their current needs,” the bulletin said. “The funeral service sector has said that they will provide them if the home does not have one available when it is required.”

Lisa Levin, CEO of Advantage Ontario, said the issue “is not huge,” but it does symbolize the new reality of the pandemic.

“You also have to put in place the proper infection control measures because we don’t know after someone is deceased if they can transmit the virus still,” Levin said.

After questions were raised about the supply of body bags, Advantage followed up with the office of the chief coroner. Levin said her office was told the coroner is working on protocols for the care of resident bodies with funeral homes and longterm care homes.

“They are pulling together a process,” she said. “Before the pandemic, when someone passed away in long-term care, which happens all the time in its natural course, the funeral homes would send someone in and take the body away.

With COVID-19, Levin said if the funeral homes were to do that, “the concern is they could bring in the virus or take out the virus. So now the chief coroner is looking at protocols to ensure the safety of funeral home staff and people in the home.”

The tradition to honour the person who died with a ceremony as the funeral home staff wheel the body out the door is unlikely to happen in homes with outbreaks, she said.

“This was your opportunity to say goodbye to them … The staff and the residents were able to come to the hallway and pay their respects. It acknowledges that someone has died and helps with the grief process.

“But in a time of outbreaks, that tradition is probably no longer happening.”

Doris Grinspun, president the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, said a body bag shortage symbolizes the failure of a system that moved too slowly to protect its seniors.