The Need For a Proper Central Morgue in Ottawa

[dewline]

This news came as a minor shock this morning. Back in 2002, when my Dad died, we had the freedom to release him directly to the funeral home of our choice because he'd died at home and the cause of his death was fairly clear and we had some time to brace for the need to make that choice. Not every death can be handled that quickly, though...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-hospital-morgues-full-conference-rooms-1.5416916

Comments

[thewayne]

While I can understand a rare occasion of running out of space in the morgue, there is a not difficult solution: rent a refer semi-trailer, good backup generators, store the bodies there. Pretty simple. Storing them in patients rooms or conference rooms is unacceptable. Yes, it costs money. Guess what? Most hospitals have money.

Here, we have a somewhat different problem: unqualified pathologists. There are places where ZERO CREDENTIALS are required for you to hang out a shingle and open a practice as a pathologist or medical examiner. I've seen reports on some of these practices and they are truly appalling.

My wife's father was a deputy county coroner in Ohio, he stayed at the deputy level for many years because the county coroner was an elected position and he didn't want to put up with that BS. He'd become a doctor, intending to be a GP, IIRC, but he had a medical condition that took away most of his hearing, and dealing with dead bodies that wasn't much of a problem.

[dewline]

Hospitals are, like municipal governments, "creatures of the province" to a certain budgetary extent. This is a consequence of provincial and territorial governments having day-to-day jurisdiction over the running of health-care services in Canada. There are charitable foundations to shore up the budgets of the several hospitals, but there are limits even to that.