(Funeral homes have been warned to prepare for a pandemic)
Public Health Agency issues warning about coping with increased demand
By: Jay Greenberg
Wednesday August 9, 2017
Government health officials have issued a warning to funeral homes to prepare for the “increased demand” that a pandemic would bring.The Public Health Agency has told funeral directors to make advance preparations for “when staff get sick” and to make “arrangements with volunteers from service clubs or churches to dig graves”.In Canada, the PHA has told funeral homes to prepare for a global pandemic saying it “may not be a problem in some communities, but funeral homes in larger cities may not be able to cope with the increased demand”.Government officials have released a statement to funeral homes warning about the management of mass fatalities during a pandemic that said: “In a pandemic, each individual funeral home could expect to handle about six months’ work within a six- to eight-week period,””That may not be a problem in some communities, but funeral homes in larger cities may not be able to cope with the increased demand.”
The Star reports: Storage space for corpses could also be a problem, the agency notes, and it says refrigerated trucks or ice rinks could be pressed into service if needed. “Funeral service providers, I can assure you, throughout their history, have responded to these sorts of tragedies and would do so again to the very best of their ability,” said Allan Cole, a board member of the Funeral Services Association of Canada and president of MacKinnon and Bowes, a company that provides services for the funeral industry.
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Another Source: The Toronto Star HERE
Global News Source HERE
