Agenda item

To consider a report from the Head of Governance and Scrutiny Support that summarise work undertaken associated with the bereavement arrangements at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT). It also introduces the fuller and more formal update from the Trust to help the Scrutiny Board set out its formal position by the end of the municipal year. 

The Head of Governance and Scrutiny Support submitted a report summarising the work undertaken associated with the bereavement arrangements at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT). It also introduced a formal update from the Trust to help the Scrutiny Board set out its formal position on this issue before the end of the 2018/19 municipal year.

The report included at Appendix 1 a copy of a letter sent to LTHT by the Chair, Scrutiny Board Adults, Health and Active Lifestyles in December 2018 summarising the main issues of enquiry from the Board. The response of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust which provided a position statement on bereavement services and current practice within LTHT had been provided as supplementary information prior to the meeting. 

The following were in attendance:

·  Mark Philpott – General Manager, Pathology Clinical Service Unit, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

·  Angie Craig – Assistant Director of Operations, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

·  Krystina Kozlowska – Head of Patient Experience, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

In presenting the report, the General Manager, Pathology Clinical Service Unit, and the Assistant Director of Operations, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) provided a summary of progress since December 2018, including:

·  Information on arrangements for the release of a deceased patient out of hours, noting the need to ensure timely release of deceased patients to meet the cultural and religious requirements of communities, including the Jewish and Muslim communities.

·  Liaison between LTHT, the Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the Coroner for West Yorkshire to provide the timely release of bodies and access to non-invasive post mortem investigations in Leeds; alongside a consistency of approach to bereavement services across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership footprint.

·  LTHT’s current benchmarking activity to review practice and compare performance against peers within the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts and more widely.

Councillor M Iqbal, who stated he had over 20 years experience of providing support to many families during their time of bereavement, reported positively on his dealings with the Pathology Unit, Registrars and Coroner’s office.

Members discussed a number of matters including:

Non coroner reportable deaths in hours – Identified the need for consistency of approach to the timely completion of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death and release of the deceased to an appointed funeral director. The Chair requested an update be provided to Board Members on obtaining MCCD’s.

Access to LTHT bereavement services – Mortuary and Bereavement Office opening times were reported to cause some difficulty to those families seeking to comply with cultural or religious funeral requirements or seeking to undertake a repatriation.

Support for the provision of non-invasive post-mortems – It was reported that one of the facilities based in Bradford had closed, which would impact on the availability of this service for Leeds residents. The Board supported the establishment of a non-invasive post mortem suite in Leeds and considered whether Leeds City Council could take a similar approach to the City of Bradford Council in supporting provision. The availability of non-invasive post mortems (as standard) in parts of Lancashire was also highlighted and re-emphasised by members of the Scrutiny Board. 

The breadth of the review – It was noted that as well as undertaking a peer review, input was being sought from service providers, hospital teams, service users and funeral directors.

RESOLVED –

a)  To note the details presented in this report and the report from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

b)  To agree the following formal position in respect of this work to be taken forward into the new municipal year;

  i).  Board Members to receive an early update on the outcome of the Trust’s review of current practice, including the completion of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death for non-Coroner reportable deaths in hours.

  ii).  That a recommendation be made to the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee to undertake a piece of work on bereavement service provision across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Plan footprint, building on the findings of the review being undertaken by LTHT expected to be completed by May 2019 and work of the Leeds Scrutiny Board.

(Councillor K Wakefield left the meeting at the conclusion of this item).