Hospital staff in Lancashire have been told to leave corpses in wards because there are not enough porters to move them at night.
Two porters are needed at Queen's Park Hospital in Blackburn to take bodies away to the mortuary.
But recent staff sickness has meant that on occasional nights only one porter has been on duty at the site.
The hospital trust said staff shortages should be resolved when a new £130m super hospital opens in July.
The hospital is merging with the Blackburn Royal Infirmary and the new hospital is being built at the Queen's Park site.
"The trauma and the heartache that's going to be caused to families in this day and age is just not acceptable"
But until the new hospital opens on 9 July, many services, including porters, are split across two sites.
Councillor Tony Humphrys, chairman of Blackburn with Darwen's health scrutiny committee, said: "This should not happen.
"It's absolutely disgraceful if that's being allowed to happen.
"The trauma and the heartache that's going to be caused to families in this day and age is just not acceptable."
In a statement, the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said its new hospital would have a rapid response team that could be called in to deal with any requests for moving patients.
It added that dead patients were always treated with "privacy and respect".
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