Long-term care, hospital staff in Ontario now responsible for putting bodies in bags

TORONTO -- Funeral home staff have been prohibited from entering hospitals and long-term care homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that workers at those facilities are now responsible for bringing out the bodies of the dead themselves.

Whereas funeral home staff previously went into hospitals and long-term care homes themselves to retrieve and bag bodies, a new rule that went into effect earlier this week means that they are now required to stop outside the facilities and provide staff with a stretcher and body bag. The staff at those facilities will then be expected to bag the body and bring it out.

Ontario’s Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer confirmed the change to CP24 on Thursday, noting that the decision was made in conjunction with the Bereavement Authority of Ontario.

He said that while he appreciates that the change may be “distressing” to some care providers, he noted that it was done only with the goal of limiting the spread of COVID-19 and with health and safety concerns top of mind.

Huyer said that he held a number of webinars for long-term care facilities and hospitals prior to the change going into effect.

“I really feel for the staff and hate thinking that this is what we are doing at this point but it really is to protect everybody from potential infection,” he told CP24.

Huyer said that the decision to change the rules around the transporting of bodies was made in order “to protect the health and safety of everyone.”

He said that while the practice is not “significantly different” from before when staff at hospitals and long-term care homes often had to place a sheet or cloth known as a “shroud” around the body, he conceded that it may be difficult for some workers.

“It is much less personal and more clinical and it is really a tough thing to do,” he said

So far the province has attributed 423 deaths to COVID-19 with more than a third of them involving long-term care home residents.

While there have been some reports of refrigerator trucks being brought in to serve as makeshift morgues in New York City, Huyer said there is no need or plans for temporary body storage in Ontario at this point.