New body storage facility in Nottingham staying open to handle 'second wave' of Covid deaths

A body storage facility is to be kept open in Nottingham until spring as the city and county enters the second wave of the pandemic.
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During the first wave earlier this year, the city and county together set up a temporary morgue in Mansfield, which fortunately was not used.

Now, the two councils have said a new facility 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 new body storage facility will be opened in Nottingham as cases of Covid-19 riseA new body storage facility will be opened in Nottingham as cases of Covid-19 rise
A new body storage facility will be opened in Nottingham as cases of Covid-19 rise

A technical document, known as a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ (RWCS) has urged councils to prepare for an increase in deaths during the second wave.

A council report said: “The revised RWCS 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.”

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 on the Nottingham facility 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 (RWCS) 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 £3.254 million, the city council has forecast its share of the costs as £1.139m (35 per cent) and this figure has now been agreed with Nottinghamshire County Council, which has paid all expenses to date.

This figure is in line with the grants received by both councils from the Government.

“Fortunately, the facility at Mansfield was not used, as the RWCS 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 RWCS had even been partially met.

“The revised RWCS 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.”

Coun Sally Longford is the deputy leader of the council, and represents the Lenton and Wollaton East ward for Labour.

She 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.

“This is an example of the extra costs that councils are having to meet to help respond to the pandemic, which is why we continue to call on Government to provide the funding they promised us at the outset.”