Mortuary services

Our team of anatomical pathology technologists have dignity, respect and care of the deceased person at the very heart of their practice. We have a secure and dignified environment to care for those who die in both our hospitals.

The facilities include private suites to visit the deceased.

Visiting

You may wish to visit the deceased while they remain in our care or prefer to wait until they have been transferred to the care of the funeral directors. Others may want to remember them as they were – it’s a personal choice.

When arranging to visit the deceased at our Hospitals please remember;

  • Visits are by appointment only.
  • We cannot facilitate visits to deceased persons if their death has been referred to, or is being investigated by Her Majesty’s Coroner.  
  • Only immediate family members may visit the deceased – we cannot accommodate extended family or friends.
  • We cannot arrange multiple appointments, except in the case your family has separated or become estranged – visits will be available to immediate next of kin only.
  • Appointment times are 30 minutes in duration, limited to 20 minutes when demand is high.
  • We cannot facilitate ritual washing or the burning of candles or incense.

How to arrange a visit

Telephone: 01708 435 205, Monday to Friday between 9am and 12.30pm and 1.30pm and 3.30pm,

Queen’s Hospital

Appointments are held daily between 1.30pm and 3.30pm

King George Hospital

Appointments are held daily between 9am and 11am

If you’re calling out of hours, please telephone 01708 435 000 and ask to arrange a visit. They’ll contact a member of our team to make an appointment for you. In some circumstance the appointment may need to be arranged for the following day.

Community Mortuary Facility

We provide mortuary and post-mortem examination services to the Coroner for Eastern Area of Greater London for the Boroughs of Havering and Barking and Dagenham.

When there is a death at a residential or commercial address or in a public place, a police officer will make an assessment and if they deem it necessary to inform Her Majesty’s Coroner, the deceased will be transferred to Queen’s Hospital Mortuary under The Coroner’s and Justice Act 2009.

The Hospital Duty Site Managers and Mortuary staff are unable to answer queries in relation to any death being investigated by Her Majesty’s Coroner. We are unable to facilitate visits to any deceased person who has been admitted to the mortuary from the community.

All enquiries should be made through the Coroner’s Investigation Officers:

East London Coroner’s Court

Telephone 020 8496 5000, option one.

Their telephone lines are normally busy and you may not get through straight away, please be patient.

Monday to Friday between 8am and 3.30pm

Collection Information  

Queen’s Hospital Mortuary

Rom Valley Way, Romford, RM7 0AG.

Vehicular access is via the Goods/Service Yard. The Mortuary is open for collections between 10am and 12.30pm on weekday mornings and 1.30pm and 3pm on weekday afternoons.

King George Hospital Mortuary

Barley Lane, Goodmayes, IG3 8YB

Vehicular access is via the Goods/Service Yard. The Mortuary is open for collections between 9am and 11am on weekday mornings.

If you wish to collect a deceased patient outside of these hours please contact the mortuary to make an appointment the day before. Our mortuaries are closed on weekends and public holidays. However there is an emergency on-call service accessible through the Duty Bed/Site Manager.

Positive Patient Identification

The funeral director or representative will be asked to complete a declaration with the deceased person/patient information as well as the details of the person instructing them to carry out the collection.

The information required in every case is:

  • Full Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Date of Death
  • Last Home Address
  • Place of Death

A minimum of three points of identification must match in order to achieve positive patient identification. We cannot release a deceased person without a positive match.

Deaths investigated by HM Coroner can only be released when the mortuary have received written authority from the Coroner’s court.

Links

What to do when someone dies: step by step (gov.uk website)

Contact us

Note: Questions marked by * are mandatory


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