Blame body-bag blunder on bad math: report By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Blame the body bags on an order to go big.
That's the finding of a probe into why dozens of body bags were sent to a Manitoba reserve recently in what some took as a grim prognosis for the coming flu season.
But Health Canada's investigation found no sign of "ill will" - just bad math.
The department's five-page report says the Wasagamack First Nation's body-bag order was "disproportionately high in comparison to quantities in nursing stations across the country."
But that's because nurses were advised to "order generously and fill supply rooms" ahead of a possible second wave of swine flu this fall, the report says.
Senior officials told nurses in remote communities to order enough supplies to last three or four months instead of the usual six weeks.
"The repeated message given to nurses from senior levels down was to 'order big,"' the report says.
And apparently that's what the head nurse for the Wasagamack First Nation did.
The report found the nurse ordered 100 body bags in August for the tiny northern community of 1,750 people.
Only 38 bags were actually delivered. But that was still more than other nursing stations on reserves, which typically stock 10 bags or less.
"While body bags are an important medical supply (e.g., to prevent transmission of infection from a deceased person to others), the amount ordered for Wasagamack was a clear over-estimation," the report says.
"There was no evidence, however, of ill will or deliberate calculation on the (nurse in charge) or anyone else's part."
The nurse later told Health Canada she ordered so many body bags for Wasagamack because it's difficult to get supplies there.
Shipments come by airplane and boat in the summer, and by airplane and all-terrain vehicle in the winter.
Supplies have to be flown in by helicopter when ice forms in the fall and breaks up in the spring. It can take up to four trips to get all the supplies there - and that's if the weather's good.
But demographics are also behind the big order.
Most people in Wasagamack are under the age of 25 - an age group shown to be susceptible to swine flu.
The Health Canada report also found "significant numbers" of children, youth and pregnant women on the reserve. Those groups are at greater risk of complications from the virus.
Besides Wasagamack, five orders for body bags were placed by other Manitoba nursing stations in August and September, the investigation found.
But the department's records show all of those orders were on back-order and none were shipped.
That's counter to media reports at the time that several reserves received body bags.
The sight of body bags on reserves inflamed already-combustible relations between Ottawa and aboriginal communities, which were hard hit by swine flu in the spring.
More than a third of Manitoba's 891 confirmed cases of swine flu are aboriginals living on-or off-reserve.
Some interpreted the bags as a prediction from Ottawa that many in those same communities would not survive a second wave of H1N1, if and when it comes.
Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs chalked the mishap up to poor communications, but said someone should have noticed the large body-bag order before it went out the door.
"There was an order that was put in by the community and then Health Canada also ordered big," Evans said.
"It was just a matter of communication. It was a communication breakdown more than anything else.
"You should know the communities you are dealing with and you should know the population of the community."
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said her department will change the way it handles orders for body bags.
"To prevent a similar situation from occurring again, Health Canada will introduce stricter controls governing the procurement process for body bags," she said.
"Health Canada officials will also review the ordering practices for nursing stations as part of regular site visits."
Aglukkaq added she's pleased with the department's findings and how it responded.
"I am confident that everything possible has been done to ensure that it will not happen again," she said.
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Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:47 am
WE WILL SURVIVE !!!
