Council considers using 19th century catacombs to store bodies of swine flu victims

Council considers using 19th century catacombs to store bodies of swine flu victims

By Jenny Hope and Graham Smith
Last updated at 12:16 PM on 25th July 2009


A council is considering using 19th century underground burial chambers to store the bodies of swine flu victims if the outbreak worsens.

Exeter City Council has identified the empty catacombs, currently used as a tourist attraction, as a potential mortuary.

He said: 'We have some empty catacombs in an old cemetery in the city. These are 19th century underground burial chambers which are normally a tourist attraction.

'They can, however, be safely used for their original purpose and allow us to temporarily store bodies in the remote possibility that the need should arise.'

It emerged last night that Sainsbury's is to opt out of distributing Tamiflu for fear of encouraging infectious swine flu victims into its shops.

Tesco and Asda have signed up some of their pharmacies as collection points for people needing the antiviral drug.

But a Sainsbury’s spokesman said: ‘A supermarket with thousands of daily visitors is not a suitable collection point.

Meanwhile a 'technical glitch' across Yorkshire yesterday left people visiting the Government's new pandemic website seeking Tamiflu being erroneously directed to collection points up to 73miles away.

Doctors last night warned that the swine flu pandemic could overwhelm hospital intensive care beds, especially in children’s units.

Demand for critical care beds could hugely outstrip supply at the peak of the epidemic, expected in the next few months.

The pressure on the NHS was dramatically highlighted by the plight of Sharon Pentleton, 26, fighting for her life in a Stockholm hospital where she was flown because of a lack of specialist NHS beds.

Experts warn that as the pandemic peaks, facilities for children are likely to become ‘quickly exhausted’.

Parents around the country have struggled to buy a thermometer as High Street pharmacies run out of stocks. A fever of 38c/100.4f is a key sign of swine flu.

Across the whole of England, demand for beds could be 60 per cent above the number available, with hospitals on the South-East coast, in the South-West, East of England and East Midlands likely to be worst hit, with demand outstripping supply by 130 per cent in some areas.

Intensive care specialists are particularly concerned because the NHS already operates to capacity in intensive care most days even without a pandemic.

The UK has fewer intensive care beds per head – just 4.5 per 100,000 people – than most other European countries, the U.S. and Canada.

Although the NHS has plans to set up temporary facilities and cancel routine hospital surgery, it is feared demand for beds and specialist ventilator equipment for victims finding it difficult to breathe unaided will still outstrip supply.

Official figures show the numbers infected doubled in a week to 100,000 new cases, with some 840 in hospital including 63 in intensive care.

At least 26 people in England and four people in Scotland are believed to have died, some with no underlying health conditions.

A report from experts in intensive care and anaesthesia from the University of Cambridge, the Intensive Care Society and St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust in London spells out the spiralling burden being placed on the Health Service in England by swine flu.

They predict demand for 2,030 adult critical care beds will soar to 130 per cent above supply in South East coast towns and almost as much in other areas.

They claim there are 265 paediatric beds – the Health Department says the figure is 364 – yet the demand from seriously ill children could be three times higher, it is estimated.

Older children might have to go into adult critical care units to relieve the pressure, says a report in the journal Anaesthesia.

Researcher Dr Ari Ercole, from Cambridge University, said hospitals faced ‘massive excess demand even if the pandemic lasted an optimistic 12 weeks’.

He said: ‘Paediatric intensive care facilities for children under 15 would be quickly exhausted, as they make up 10 per cent of current provision but could face 30 per cent of the demand for pandemic-related beds.

‘Early experience of the present strain suggests that the attack rate is particularly high in the young and that this virus may severely compromise the immune systems of people who contract it.’

It emerged yesterday that some swine flu victims are being hit by rare complications, which destroy the lung tissue. Patients need specialist ventilator care for several weeks.

Ventilator capacity would be stretched, with some areas having 20 per cent more patients than they can care for.

Professor David Menon, one of the authors from the University of Cambridge, said the figures used in the research could be conservative. It was possible four times as many patients would be admitted to hospital as suggested, of whom about half would need intensive care.

Between 10 per cent and 50 per cent of patients in intensive care with swine flu were suffering renal failure and requiring kidney support.

Dr Jonathan Handy, an anaesthetist from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, writing in the same journal, said immediate action was needed for a ‘worst case’ scenario.

This included stockpiling supplies and looking at how medical students could play an active role in patient care.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: ‘The issue of critical care has been considered as part of planning for a pandemic.

‘Trusts have advised that, in the event of a flu widespread outbreak, they estimate that they could double their critical care capacity for ventilated patients.

‘This would be done by invoking their escalation procedures, which include cancelling elective procedures and redeploying staff.’

Immigration officials and health workers at Heathrow and other port authorities have been told to look out for signs of swine flu among passengers, it emerged last night.

The Home Office has told staff employed at Heathrow, as well as other airports and shipping ports across the country, to be on the look-out for the virus and to report any potential cases.

Earlier this month British Airways and Virgin announced that passengers showing symptoms of swine flu would not be allowed to fly.

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