Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

5. Mrs X complains about issues with communication regarding Barking, Havering, and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (the Trust) following her brother, Mr L’s death. Specifically, she says she was told the bereavement team would contact her, so she could see her brother before he was taken to the mortuary. However, this was the wrong advice.

6. She says this meant she was unable to say goodbye to her brother before he was taken to the mortuary. She says this compounded the distress caused by the failures in her brother’s care that led to his death.

7. Mrs X would like the Trust to acknowledge its mistakes and apologise for the impact it had. She would also like the Trust to make improvements to its services to prevent this happening again and compensate her for the distress caused by its actions.

8. During the local resolution meeting Mrs X has told us a doctor rang her to say her brother had ‘gone’. She explained she told the doctor she was going to come to the hospital to see him but says she was told to wait until the bereavement centre contacts her and then she can come down and see him.

9. However, Mrs X has said it turned out she was supposed to call the Bereavement Team which she didn’t because she didn’t know, and by the time she did, her brother had already been taken to the mortuary (and she couldn’t say bye to him).

10. During the local resolution meeting staff apologised for the error and stated it would feedback to staff to ensure it did not happen again.

11. Following a conversation with the Trust, it has since sent a letter (12 May 2025) to Mrs X and said all critical care staff on both hospital sites have been reminded to ensure that grieving families are provided with the relevant leaflets explaining the process for contacting the Bereavement team after the death of a loved one.

12. The Trust said it sincerely apologises for the miscommunication and for the distress this caused and told us there have been improvements in the bereavement process.

15. There is no doubt that the Trust provided incorrect information to Mrs X regarding her brother’s death, and this ultimately denied her the opportunity to see him in his hospital bed following his death in hospital. We appreciate this would have caused her a great deal of distress and upset, especially at an extremely upsetting time.

16. We understand that Mrs X decided not to see her brother in the mortuary or prior to his funeral.

17. In line with NHS complaint standards, which state; Organisations support and encourage staff to be open and honest when things have gone wrong or where improvements can be made. Staff recognise the need to be accountable for their actions and to identify what learning can be taken from a complaint. They are clear about how the learning will be used to improve services and support staff.

18. Given the latest actions of the Trust we are satisfied the Trust has done enough to rectify the injustice Mrs X has sadly experienced.

19. There is no doubt the actions of the Trust made an extremely difficult situation worse for Mrs X, and we do not wish to dismiss her experience. We hope she is reassured that the Trust has learnt from the error it has made and apologised.

20. We would like to thank Mrs X for highlighting her concerns and highlighting the error made by the Trust, and hope she is reassured by the apology and the service improvements.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs X’s complaint about Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (the Trust).

2. We understand the significant upset and distress Mrs X has experienced because of the Trust’s error and do not doubt this made an extremely difficult situation even harder for her.

3. The Trust has now written to Mrs X to apologise and explained the steps it has taken to improve. We consider this is an appropriate and proportionate response to the complaint in line with the NHS Complaints Standards, and there is no further action for us to take.

4. Complaints give us valuable insight into the organisations we investigate, so we would like to thank Mrs X for sharing her experience with us. It is important to acknowledge that whilst we are not taking any further action, this does not diminish Ms X's experience, nor the impact this had on her.