Withdrawal of hospital embalming service criticised

THE WITHDRAWAL of embalming services at a hospital which complies with all requirements will cause great distress to bereaved families and shows a lack of respect for the deceased, the Dáil has heard.

Damien English (FG, Meath West) warned it would result in delays of up to two days in the release of remains for burial and “it is a shame on us, in this day and age”. Mr English claimed the HSE had failed “for many weeks” to answer questions he had raised about the decision to withdraw embalming services from Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, Co Meath.

But Minister of State Áine Brady said “embalming is not a service provided or funded by the HSE. It is a service provided by commercial entities, such as funeral directors under contract with recently bereaved families who choose this service.”

Standing in for Minister for Health Mary Harney, she said the HSE now required that hospitals that wished to retain embalming services “must develop a service level agreement with each commercial entity” that wanted to use their services.

She added that it was “a matter for each hospital to decide whether it will enter into a service level agreement with undertakers” and she understood the Navan hospital had decided to discontinue embalming services.

Mr English said, however, that he was “disappointed that the Government and the HSE at a time of so many problems, apparently try to create more”.

Some 80 per cent of hospitals would retain their embalming services yet Navan was one of only five hospitals in Ireland complying with the Willis report recommendations on embalming. The Fine Gael TD was “baffled as to why this service is being withdrawn” and said it would raise burial costs, “which already cost a fortune”.

There was a lack of dignity for the deceased because “it will mean the unnecessary transportation of dead bodies around the county for embalming purposes and basically this is not right”.

He said it would increase the threat of the hospital-acquired infection clostridium difficile being passed on in the case of a death from the infection.

Ms Brady said the Willis audit recommended that service level agreements be put in place with external operators who use hospital premises for embalming procedure. She also pointed out that “embalming is an additional option which is chosen by some families for their deceased loved ones and is therefore provided on a commercial basis”.