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Bereavement services

Story from nhs.uk

"Bereavement services"

About: Lincoln County Hospital

I recently suffered the loss of my dear mum who passed away at the hospital. I am now aware there is a dedicated area Swanpool Suite which supposedly cares for bereaved loved ones.

I went up last week to collect my mums personal effects. I felt there was little compassion to my circumstances the last place i wanted to be was back at the hospital. We were sent myself and my partner to sit in a small room no windows. When a staff member entered she barely said a thing other than to put a brown envelope in my hand and asking me to sign to say id collected.

We queried our free parking which ward staff had told us to request if we had to make a return visit. We were told youve only been here 5 minutes it will be fine. Given the issues with parking we checked at the machine and a 1.70 amount payable came up. We went to query this at reception and was told the information it was free up to half an hour was incorrect. We decided to pay the parking i just didnt want to be there any longer. This issue needs addressing bereaved loved ones dont need a hefty parking fine on top of everything else.

As for making contact with the bereavement team to arrange to collect a death certificate for your loved one all you get is an answer machine.

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Responses

Response from David Knight, Senior Chaplain and Bereavement Service Manager, Chaplaincy Department, United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust 5 years ago
David Knight
Senior Chaplain and Bereavement Service Manager, Chaplaincy Department,
United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Submitted on 25/09/2019 at 10:47
Published on Care Opinion at 10:47

I am really sorry that your experience of the Bereavement Service was not more positive. Whilst we recognise that coming back to the hospital following a death can be distressing, one of the reasons that the dedicated Bereavement Service was set up was to avoid families having to return to the ward or department where the death had taken place, and we try to make the visit back to the hospital as easy as possible in the circumstances in order to collect the Medical Cause of Death Certificate and any personal items.

The Swanpool suite does have a couple of rooms where relatives are seen, and as you describe one of them does not have windows, however we have tried to make this room a spacious and comfortable environment and wherever possible we use the other room which does have windows. I can only assume that on this particular day the other room was also being used.

With regards to the parking, I apologise that you were given the incorrect information, and will ensure in future that all bereaved relatives are given the appropriate exemption from parking charges voucher.

Finally, you have raised the issue about contacting the Bereavement Team. We do make every effort to answer the phones, however it is a small team so inevitably often calls do go through to the answerphone but we always try to respond to all messages on the same working day or the next working day if the message is received after the bereavement office has closed.

Reverend David Knight

Senior Chaplain and Bereavement Service Manager

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