CREMATORIUMS WILL be working round the clock, funeral services will be shortened, cemeteries will fill up and fields will be turned into burial grounds when the next flu pandemic hits the Dundee area, writes Marjory Inglis, health reporter.

A leading funeral director said yesterday that at the height of the outbreak his colleagues would have to cope with an estimated 350 additional deaths a week.

Lindsay Martin, public relations officer for the Dundee area of the National Association of Funeral Directors, said plans were in place to deal with the large increase in the workload of undertakers who have been recognised as “key players” in the coming crisis.

Every funeral business from Stonehaven to Cupar has already agreed to operate as one in the event of a pandemic, pooling all available staff and vehicles and moving them to the places they are most needed.

The plan takes account of the fact that when the pandemic crisis hits, funeral directors’ own staff will be affected and unfit for work.

Emergency services don’t know when it will occur but they are in no doubt that pandemic flu will strike and want to be ready to limit the devastation and maintain essential services when as many as one in five of the population is ill.

Some time ago Professor Tony Wells, NHS Tayside’s canny chief executive, who abhors spreading alarm and avoids quick sound bites, stated publicly that pandemic flu was coming. Nobody knew when but it was most definitely, as he put it, “when and not if.”

Everybody involved in emergency planning is taking the threat seriously and yesterday Mr Martin outlined how his colleagues would tackle the crisis.

He said mourners would be strictly limited to close family members of the deceased, in a bid to contain the spread of disease and speed the process.

Burials and cremations would be very quick but would always be conducted “with dignity and respect” and with the clergy involved.

“You won’t be getting the usual 40 or 45-minute service though,” said Mr Martin.

“All deceased persons would be removed direct to the crematoriums or cemeteries. There will be no such thing as having a service in a service room or church.”

He said that the crematoriums in Dundee and at Parkgrove, Friockheim, would be operating 24 hours a day.

“Our plans are based on Parkgrove doing 22 to 23 cremations in every 24-hour cycle and Dundee would be doing twice as many as that. Normally there are only eight cremations a day at Parkgrove and Dundee does a maximum of 16 a day.”

“In the event there were major numbers of deaths then new burial grounds would be identified,” said Mr Martin.

He said he was confident his colleagues would cope when the crisis hit.

“We reckon we would be able to cope even in the event of 20% of our staff going off sick.”