Andrew Elliott, Policy Adviser, Scottish Resilience and Noel Rehfisch, Head, Community Resilience Unit, Scottish Government
Abstract
Emergencies that cause the deaths of large numbers of people can result from major accidents, natural disasters or acts of hostility. While what has happened cannot be undone, other people may be protected from similar events by careful investigation of the causes, the collection of evidence and the prosecution of any criminal acts. Within the wider investigation, responding to the deaths will focus on the respectful treatment and accurate identification of the physical remains, and where possible their return to the next of kin. A large number of deaths or complexity of circumstances, such as fragmentation of bodies, may require the deployment of an emergency mortuary. This can enable large volumes of specialist forensic tasks to be conducted, but will place new demands on the emergency services and local authority, including the need to consider body storage, specialist equipment, staffing, mortuary deployment and on-site maintenance, and mortuary integration with the local physical infrastructure and management arrangements. This will require a coordinated multi-agency approach. The decisions taken and the ways in which information is communicated may have a lifelong impact on the friends and families of those who have died. Plans should therefore be considered carefully from their perspective.
Keywords
mortuary, mass fatalities, integrated emergency management, bereaved
Andrew Elliott works as a policy adviser in Scottish Resilience, where he is a secondee from NHS Lothian. After completing a degree in economics, he moved into healthcare and worked as a registered general nurse, before taking up posts in diabetes research and public health. He has extensive experience of policy development and exercising, as well as responding to emergencies as an on-call public health practitioner. Since working with the Scottish Government he has led policy development on the management of mass fatalities and was the principal author of the Scottish national mass fatalities guidance. He has also worked on the Scottish Government response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic, fuel shortages and other emergencies. Andrew is a member of the Community Resilience Unit working on policy development and delivery in the areas of caring for people, recovery from emergencies, mass fatalities and private sector business continuity.
Noel Rehfisch is head of the Scottish Government’s Community Resilience Unit, which is part of Scottish Resilience. Scottish Resilience is the part of the Scottish Government that provides practical support to the frontline agencies that deliver fire, rescue and emergency planning/response services, as well as advice to ministers and colleagues across the Scottish Government on all aspects of fire, rescue services and civil contingencies policy. Noel has worked in public service management for over 12 years in roles covering civil and criminal justice, organisational change and offender management.
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