Undertakers protest as HSE ends embalming service at hospital

A decision by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to end embalming services and preparation of the remains of deceased people at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan has resulted in strong protests from some undertakers in the county who say that the move is being done without consultation with them and that it will result in extra stress for families of the dead. The HSE said it made the decision a fortnight ago on the grounds that it resulted from a review of mortuary practices nationwide which showed that there were weaknesses in consent for embalming, weaknesses in supervision, credentials checks and indemnity arrangements, and also weaknesses in service level agreements and standard operating procedures in relation to this practice with commercial entities (ie, funeral directors). However, the decision has been met with a mixture of confusion and anger among local funeral directors, who want the decision reversed. One undertaker, Brian Curran in Kells, said that funeral directors carried out their duties on behalf of families in a careful and dignified manner. "I am totally disgusted that the HSE has made this decision without any prior notification to the funeral directors. To have this decision made by some pen-pusher in an office somewhere is appalling," he said this week. He said he was calling on the manager of Our Lady's Hospital and the HSE person who made the decision to end the service to meet immediately with funeral directors to hear their objections to the move and to explain the reasons behind it. Up to a fortnight ago, Our Lady's Hospital was at the centre of a service which provided storage, preparation of remains and removal facilities to Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. Between 400-500 bodies were processed in this way each year. Under this system, bodies were taken to the hospital and, under instruction from undertakers representing families, an embalming process and hygienic preparation of remains was carried out. From now on, if a funeral director does not have the facility to prepare bodies in his/her own premises, the remains will have to be transferred to an undertaker who does. The point made by some undertakers is that this will result in delays in returning the bodies to bereaved families, causing them further stress. They say that it is extremely important that remains be returned to families as soon as possible following post-mortem procedures. Mr Curran said yesterday (Tuesday) that he failed to understand why the HSE had made the decision in the first place, and why it had been made in such a cursory and offhanded manner. "The embalming service given at Our Lady's Hospital is the best in Ireland. I would have 110 per cent confidence in the people carrying out this service. What the HSE has done is obstructed the making of funeral arrangements. What they have done will cause nothing but delay in getting the remains of deceased persons back to their loved ones as soon as possible." Navan funeral director Peadar Farrelly said that people were at their "lowest ebb" at the time of a bereavement and he felt that the removal of the service from Our Lady's Hospital would cause a "24-hour delay" in having remains returned to families for burial. He said that funeral directors who do not have preparation facilities will have to have remains transported to undertakers who have the facilities, and then back to Meath for the removal. "There is a lot of pressure involved in this. Normally, under the present system, we can have remains returned to families in four to five hours but that won't be possible any longer," he said. Trim funeral director Aidan Heffernan said his firm had its own preparation rooms but he had colleagues who did not have such facilities. "It might, in effect, entail delays for the bereaved families. We are holding a watching brief on this to see what it will mean in reality," he said. Mr Heffernan added there had been no consultation with funeral directors, and the directors had not been notified by the HSE that the change was taking place. A HSE spokesperson said that embalming was not a service that was either provided or funded by the HSE, and it had never been. It was provided by "commercial entities" under a contract with recently-bereaved families who chose this service. Historically, commercial entities had used HSE premises for embalming purposes but the nationwide review had shown up weaknesses in the system. "The HSE plans to implement the recommendations in the Willis Report which highlighted embalming arrangements as an area needing improvement. All hospitals in the country are obliged to be compliant with these recommendations by 1st November 2009. Funeral directors will still be able to use the hospital's mortuary chapel for removal of remains, as is current practice," the HSE added. Mayor of Navan, Cllr Joe Reilly, said, in his view, anybody who is fully qualified should have access to the facilities of the mortuary in order to enable them to speed up the process and to help relatives of the deceased, who are already in very trying circumstances."