BODIES are being stored at a council gritting yard as hospital mortuaries reach full capacity.
The refrigeration unit, tucked away in a corner of the site, is under 24-hour guard.
Hospital vehicles were seen delivering and collecting the dead from the nearest hospital, which is a 15-minute drive away in Salisbury, Wilts.
Two other units have been set up at Royal Liverpool Hospital.
Temporary morgues — typically inside 40ft shipping containers and each holding about 35 bodies — were last seen during the height of the pandemic, when there were at least 1,000 deaths a day.
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Although not at that rate, bleak figures showed Christmas week was the deadliest in England and Wales for almost two years.
There were more than 1,600 deaths above the norm as the cold weather, surging flu infections and long waits for ambulances and in A&E combined to raise mortality rates by a fifth.
It was the third week running when there were more than 1,000 excess deaths in England and Wales.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine claimed the spike in deaths was undoubtedly linked to record delays for urgent care.
It said: “If you can’t get an ambulance to someone who’s having a heart attack or a stroke, then some of those patients may die as a result.”
College president Adrian Boyle said the death rates were “shockingly high”.
He added: “Our own analysis indicates that an estimated 300 to 500 patients are dying per week across the UK associated with long waiting times in emergency departments.
“This is awful, distressing and completely unacceptable.”
Yesterday 999 call handlers joined paramedics in a second day of strikes in the ambulance service, with an estimated 25,000 staff on the picket line.
It came days after bosses at the Human Tissue Authority, which regulates the storage of bodies, issued a national alert about “mortuary capacity issues”.
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It said organisations must ensure they had contingency plans.
Last week one refrigeration unit, housed in a grey container, was delivered to High Post Salt Store just outside Salisbury.
Health bosses requested use of the site to take corpses from Salisbury District Hospital, where the morgue is understood to be full.
The gritter site is adjacent to a business park, home to a car parts company, a gym and an art supply business. It is also a short distance from an 18-hole golf course.
Joyce Robins, founder of Patient Concern, said: “It’s all very disappointing. It’s the sort of thing that should be planned for.
“Putting them in a gritting yard makes it look like we just don’t care about these people when they die. It’s terribly sad for the families. A bit of respect is what we need.”
Last night, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust said: “We can confirm that we have opened additional mortuary capacity to accommodate an increase in need across the local community.
“Our mortuary service operates to the national standards treating the deceased and loved ones with dignity and respect at all times regardless of location. All our additional capacity provides privacy and has 24/7 security.”
The two units at the Royal Liverpool were also delivered last week and set up on hospital grounds.
According to its website, the hospital morgue deals with about 2,000 deaths annually but it is believed to be at capacity.
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Liverpool Hospital, said: “It is common practice for mortuaries to have purpose-built temporary systems available.
“This ensures that patients continue to be treated with dignity and respect, in facilities which are equivalent to a permanent mortuary, during periods of increased demand. Two of these systems, which meet standards set out by the Human Tissue Authority, have been deployed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.”
As well as having round-the-clock security, staff at both sites are under strict instructions to monitor the units, ensuring the temperature inside stays between 4C and 7C.
Both NHS England and the Department of Health refused to comment.
