Undertakers to protest end of embalming service

Meath funeral directors opposing the decision by the HSE to end embalming services and preparation of the remains of deceased people at Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, are to hold a protest outside the mortuary of the hospital this Friday. Between 20-30 funeral directors, with their hearses, will gather at the mortuary at 8.30am and, "in a dignified way", will express their annoyance with the HSE at ending the service, and for failing to respond to requests for a meeting to discuss the service. The undertakers say that the move is being carried out without consultation with them and that it will result in extra stress for the families of those who have passed away. One undertaker said this week that, up to now, if a person died at 2pm, the undertaker could use the service in Navan and have the remains back with the family by 5pm. However, under the new system, which will in many cases entail transporting the remains to an embalming and preparation service in Drogheda, the remains will not be returned to the family until the following day. The HSE has said it made the decision to end the service at Navan following 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 was met with a mixture of confusion and anger among local funeral directors who want the decision reversed. Stackallen funeral director Peadar Farrelly said they expected that funeral directors from Meath, Westmeath, Cavan and Monaghan would join them in the protest in Navan on Friday. He said the directors did not like having to make a protest in this way but found that it was the only means they had of getting their message across to the HSE that the service should not have been ended and that, in fact, it should be restored. He said they had been trying to contact senior executives in the HSE over the past couple of weeks but had received no response. "I personally rang a senior manager's office three times and I know that (local TD) Shane McEntee and Cllr Joe Reilly sent texts to the HSE but there hasn't even been an acknowledgement," he said. Mr Farrelly said that if matters were allowed to continue as they are, "we will end up the same as England where it takes four to five days or longer to have a body returned to a family for burial". He said that the facility at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan was a public facility. "It is an excellent service and we don't know why the HSE took it into their heads to close it down. If it remains closed, there will be additional difficulties for both funeral directors and the families of the deceased. For instance, if a person died in Meath, the remains will have to be taken in a body bag - and we do not like using body bags - to Drogheda to avail of embalming and remains preparation there. There will be additional delays and more expense for the families," he added. Kells funeral director Brian Curran said that, unfortunately, he could not attend Friday's protest because he will be away on Kells Town Council business, but "fully endorsed" the protest. "It is a sad reflection on the HSE that they made this decision without the slightest consultation with funeral directors or anyone else. If the old health boards were there, at least we might have been informed in advance of the decision so that it could be discussed in full. This was an arbitrary decision carried out without a semblance of good manners," he claimed. The withdrawl of the embalming service was also raised in the Dail where Fine Gael TD Damien English said that the removal of such a service at a hospital which complied with all requirements would create great distress to bereaved families and showed a lack of respect for the deceased. He warned that it would result in delays of up to two days in the release of remains for burial and "it is a shame on us, in this day and age". However, Minister of State Aine Brady said that "embalming is not a service provided or funded by the HSE. It is a service provided by commercial entities, such as funeral directors under contract with recently bereaved families who choose this service". She said that the HSE now required that hospitals that wished to retain embalming services "must develop a service level agreement with each commercial entity" that wanted to use their services. She added that it was a matter for each hospital to decide whether it would enter into a service level agreement with undertakers and she said she understood the Navan hospital had decided to discontinue embalming services.