Deceased

Kent County Council and East Sussex County Council should examine their contractual arrangements with Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust to ensure that they are effective in protecting the safety …

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust must treat the deceased with the same due regard to dignity and safeguarding as it does its other patients.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust must assure itself that all regulatory requirements and standards relating to the mortuary are met and that the practice of leaving deceased people out …

Trust boards should ensure that these recommendations and governance arrangements are applied to any temporary facilities used by trusts for the storage and care of deceased people.

NHS trust boards should ensure that the security and dignity of deceased people are included in safeguarding training, policies and assurance.

The remit of the Chief Nurse in NHS trusts should explicitly include executive responsibility for safeguarding the security and dignity of deceased people in NHS mortuaries and body stores.

NHS England should formally incorporate the safeguarding of deceased people into its safeguarding framework for NHS trusts.

Independent sector healthcare providers should ensure that there are Standard Operating Procedures and policies in place to protect the security and dignity of any patients that die under their care. …

Independent sector healthcare providers should ensure that only people who have a legitimate reason to access a room that contains a deceased patient do so, even if they are staff …

Hospices that care for deceased people on their premises should: introduce auditable access control of the area where deceased people are kept; have Standard Operating Procedures regarding the care of …

To avoid confusion over its remit, the Care Quality Commission should issue clear guidance to inspectors (and others) that hospice inspections should not include areas where deceased people are kept, …

Hospices should be considered in scope for the regulatory measures recommended in Chapter 11.

Data on how often deceased patients are conveyed in ambulances, and the reasons for this, should be routinely collected and reported to NHS England, and monitored to assess risk.

Every NHS ambulance service should have a policy setting out where ambulance crew members should sit when conveying deceased patients. This should include reference to the risk of abuse of …

NHS ambulance services should also have policies regarding the security and dignity of the deceased, including when the deceased should be covered and/or secured. NHS England should monitor that such …

Every NHS ambulance service must put policies in place regarding taking photographs of deceased patients, including any circumstances in which this may be required, and ensure that ambulance staff are …

The Inquiry has focused its investigations into ambulance services on NHS ambulance services. However, the Inquiry considers that these recommendations could also be applied to independent ambulance services, including private …

The regulatory measures recommended in Chapter 11 should apply to care homes in England. Regulation should cover both systems and professionals where staff are providing care to deceased people in …

These regulations and standards should be considered within the overall care and journey of the deceased rather than applying in isolation to funeral directors.

All faith organisations should consider how to support their members to deliver high standards of care for the deceased, with a focus on the security and dignity of the deceased …

Where deceased people are in a religious building overnight, measures should be taken to ensure that the building is secure, including, for example, CCTV and secure access control for the …

Where organisations work together to care for people after death, the arrangements should be formalised through contracts or service level agreements. This should include joint Standard Operating Procedures. The parties …

The UK government should establish an independent statutory regulatory regime, headed by a Chief Inspector, for those who store and care for deceased people. The purpose of the regulatory regime …