Nova Scotia now equipped for disaster
Posted Nov 21, 2012 08:48:12 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia is now equipped to handle mass causalities in the event of an epidemic or natural disaster, according to the Justice Minister and Chief Medical Examiner.
The province opened its newly constructed Dr. William D Finn Centre for Forensic Medicine lab in Burnside today.
“Until now, Nova Scotia’s Medical Examiner Service has been working out of two locations: a morgue at the Victoria General Hospital and office space on Spring Garden Road,” Minister Ross Landry told reporters at Wednesday’s opening.
“Heaven forbid if we were to find ourselves in a situation where there could be many deaths, like an epidemic, the old location could not have been expanded to accommodate additional volume,” said Landry. “While we don’t like to think about those possibilities, we have to plan for the worst situation and hope for the best.”
This facility is the brain-child of Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Matt Bowes who told the province of the necessity.
“While as our neighbours in New Jersey and New York just found out, crises happen all the time,” Bowes told News 95.7, referring to the fallout from Hurricane Sandy. “We don’t control how or when they arrive. But we can control our response to that.”
The building is named after Canada’s first medical examiner Dr. William D Finn, a Nova Scotian man who is recognized for his expertise during the Halifax explosion and the Titanic disaster.
Key features of the new building include:
- enhanced security for information and evidence
- laboratory-grade air and water handling in the mortuary wing to reduce the risk of microbial contamination
- capacity to expand, allowing the service to handle multiple deaths, such as during an epidemic or after a significant accident, like a plane crash
- videoconferencing facilities which may allow pathologists to testify in court remotely
- a private briefing room for families
- information technology changes to archive autopsy images
One of Dr. Finn’s grandchildren, Nancy Crane of Halifax, was on hand to express the family’s pride that the facility bears Finn’s name.
“Although I never met my grandfather, the stories and rich history have been passed down in my family for generations,” Crane was quoted in a news release. “It is a great tribute to his memory to have the new facility in his name.”
The Dartmouth facility is open with autopsies starting in the facility Dec. 10.
