Mobile mortuary heads to Rotherham Hospital

A MOBILE mortuary is on its way to Rotherham Hospital from the Ministry of Defence.

Dr Callum Gardner, executive medical director for the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, said the number of unoccupied spaces in the mortuary was constantly being monitored.

“As a precaution, we will shortly be receiving a mobile mortuary from the Ministry of Defence which will provide us with an additional 70 spaces should they be needed,” Dr Gardner added.

“This will ensure we can continue to respect a deceased patient’s dignity while families and loved ones make the necessary funeral arrangements.”

George Briggs, chief operating officer at the trust, confirmed that as of 8am yesterday, the hospital had safely discharged 139 patients who had been treated for Covid-19.

“Our staff are treating 71 inpatients for Covid-19, but we have now sadly lost 76 patients to the virus and our thoughts are with their families,” he added.

Dr Gardner (right)?said work had now been completed on the new Covid-19 wards on level A, which is temporarily housing the critical care unit, providing an additional 60 beds.

“We would like to thank everyone involved, from our own teams for helping move patients to free up the space and cleaning it after the works completed, to our estates team, the teams from W Wright for the electrical work, and Medical Gas Services Ltd for installing the air plant and pipework,” added Dr Gardner.

“It really has been a huge team effort to quickly turn around this work to provide us with the capability of caring for more critical care patients.”

Strict visitor restrictions are still in place at the hospital to protect patients, families and staff, with only one visitor allowed in a handful of cases.

“We have carried out work to restrict where and when people can enter the hospital building,” said Mr Briggs.

“The majority of the doors are now closed and members of the public are only able to enter through the main entrance or through the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre. The maternity entrance is also open during the day.”