"No area to grieve"

My mother in law recently went into the palliative care unit and passed away two days later.

The care she received whilst in there was exceptional and the family were also well looked after in terms of explaining the process before and after her passing and supplying hot drinks on a regular basis.

However, when my mother in law was nearing the end of her life we rang for assistance and a care worker came in and informed us that she was probably taking her last breaths.

After a few minutes a nurse came in and on noticing that my mother in law had passed, looked quite shocked and tried to feel for a pulse but after a few minutes decided to get the doctor (this was quite distressing).

It seemed quite a while before the doctor arrived and verified that she had passed.

After my mother in law's passing we asked for a cup of tea and sat in the small lounge, only to be told that we couldn't stay in there as the nurses would be having their handover meeting in there.

Myself and my husband then wondered around to look for somewhere else to sit (still very distressed and upset), sat in the reception area for a while but people were walking in and out so eventually found an area at the bottom of a corridor where there were two benches.

However at the end of that corridor there was two bays that were full of terminally ill people.

I felt very conscious that the rest of the family had gathered at that point and were all upset and crying, which really wasn't appropriate for the patients to hear.

I don't wish to criticise the care received or any of the staff but feel this issue needs to be raised so other families and terminally ill patients aren't put in this situation again.