Farewell Services

The mortuary has a larger role than keeping bodies: it is part of patient care, of the law and of public health. It protects the dignity of the dead, gives families answers about the cause of death, protects the living from infection and serves the courts.

What the department does

• Preservation of bodies — kept at 2–4 °C to delay decomposition until the family collects the body or burial is arranged, with freezer storage at −10 to −20 °C for unidentified bodies and long stays
• Identification and documentation — bodies are received from the ward with proper tags, and the time of death, ward and patient details are recorded, so that identification is correct and mix-ups are avoided. A mortuary register is kept, as the law requires
• Family support and viewing — a dignified, private place for families to view and identify a loved one, with social work and security supporting the bereaved
• Post-mortem examination — clinical autopsies with the family's consent, to establish the true cause of death, and medico-legal autopsies for deaths that are sudden, unnatural, accidental, suicide, homicide or unknown, which the law requires for the police and the courts
• Medico-legal work — working with the police, the DCI and the pathologist, preserving evidence such as clothes, bullets and samples, and storing unclaimed or unidentified bodies while relatives are traced
• Infection control — safe handling of highly infectious bodies, including TB, COVID-19 and haemorrhagic fevers, with proper disinfection and waste disposal, so that staff and the community are protected
• Release and disposal — release to the family with a mortuary release form and burial permit. Unclaimed bodies are buried by the county after the legal waiting period and a court order
• Teaching and research — training medical students, nurses and morticians