Hospital bereavement team

The hospital bereavement team, sometimes called the bereavement office, is the department that looks after a family in the days after a death in hospital. Every NHS hospital has one, and it is the first office you deal with.

What the bereavement team does

• The paperwork: the team tells you when the medical certificate of cause of death has been sent to the register office, so you know when you can book the registration. If the death has been referred to the coroner, the team tells you that too.
• Belongings: your loved one's property and valuables are held by the team and returned to the next of kin.
• Release: the team arranges for your loved one to be released from the hospital mortuary to the funeral director you name.
• Viewing: many hospitals can arrange for you to see your loved one at the hospital before they are collected.
• Support: the team can put you in touch with the hospital chaplaincy, whatever your faith, and with bereavement services outside the hospital.

For a repatriation

Tell the bereavement team that your loved one will be repatriated rather than buried or cremated in the UK, and give them our name as the funeral director. From that point we deal with the team directly: the release, the collection and the certificates the destination country needs. If the death was referred to the coroner, the release waits for the coroner, and we keep you informed of where things stand.

Before your loved one is released

For a burial or cremation in the UK, the hospital mortuary needs the certificate for burial or cremation before it releases your loved one. This is the green form the registrar gives you when the death is registered. If the coroner is involved, the coroner's own order for burial or certificate for cremation takes its place.

Read next

What the hospital does in the hours and days after a death is in what happens when someone dies in hospital. The steps that follow are in what to do when someone dies in the UK. If your loved one is in a hospital in one of our areas, we collect from there as part of a direct cremation.

Related terms: Registering a death and Care before the funeral. Every term in the funeral glossary.