HOSPITAL bosses have held an emergency meeting because of staff shortages at the mortuary at Burnley General.

Management at the hospital held a meeting with police, undertakers and the coroner’s office to try and avert a crisis.

They have been forced to bring in agency staff to avoid dead bodies stacking up.

Now hospital chiefs are starting a major push to recruit more qualified staff to avoid future problems.

Mark Walkingshaw, director of planning and strategic development for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said there were no plans to close the mortuary despite concerns raised by local councillors about the future of the facility.

He said: “East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust conti-nues to provide mortuary services at both our Burnley and Blackburn hospitals.

“However I can confirm that we do face ongoing challenges with regard to staffing the mortuary at Burnley.

“This is mainly because there is a national shortage of qualified mortuary staff which has meant that we are currently partly reliant on experienced locum staff within what is already a small team.”

Staff working in the mortuary at both hospitals have had to work across both sites to cover the shortage.

Coun Mohammed Iqbal, Pendle Council leader, said he wanted to ensure that the mortuary remained at Burnley.

“It is a major issue for residents as bodies would have to be transported by ambulance or by the police to Blackburn which would be upsetting for relatives, time consuming and take up valuable resources,” he said.

Mr Walkingshaw said: “In order to make sure we continue to provide a high quality mortuary service at Burnley staff are working flexibly across both sites.

“To help address this situation in the longer term, we have met with the police, local undertakers and the coroner’s office to work together on solutions.

“We have decided to work together to push even more strongly on staff recruitment and we continue to work closely with all the key parties involved.

“We are confident we can continue to maintain a high quality professional mortuary service at Burnley, despite these current staffing pressures.”

Undertakers at Burnley funeral directors Alderson and Horan and Helliwell’s said they were not aware of any ongoing difficulties but said that the mortuary service at Burnley had always been “very professional” in their app-roach.