Bereavement Officer

at  Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

The Bereavement Office provides a service to friends or relatives of deceased patients. The team offer information and advice on procedural matters relating to death notification, funeral arrangements and the release of patients’ personal property. The team are also responsible for the Trust’s arrangement for the safe keeping of patients’ property.
The role of Bereavement Officer requires the post-holder to exercise tact and diplomacy, sensitivity, and the ability to listen. It also involves a considerable degree of independent judgement and initiative in liaising with a variety of services, as may be appropriate, on related matters.
Liaising with Doctors, Medical Examiners and their officers, the Coroner’s Office, the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths and a variety of external agencies as appropriate on matters relating to the issue of death certificates.
Manage the notifications of death list from EPIC in a timely manner, identify the appropriate Doctor and request they attend the Bereavement Office at the earliest opportunity to complete the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.
Maintain the case notifications in date order of priority and ensure that delays are escalated to senior members of the clinical teams (Registrar/Consultant) to avoid unnecessary delays to families of the bereaved.
To monitor the wording on death certificates and cremation documents, ensuring that the chosen cause of death is as per the Royal College of Pathology “Cause of Death” register and to guide the Doctors accordingly.To liaise with appointed Funeral Directors, Coroner’s Officers and the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages
Co-ordinating arrangements relating to the affairs of deceased patients, including offering appropriate information and advice concerning registration of death, viewing and funeral arrangements, coroner’s cases and post-mortems, taking account of cultural needs.
The issues may be multi-stranded and delicate.
Assist and co-operate in providing the bereavement services to the hospital in accordance with the policies of the Trust.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust provides NHS hospital services for around 900,000 people across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and south Buckinghamshire.
As well as delivering excellent general hospital services to local people, we provide specialist heart attack, vascular, stroke, spinal, cystic fibrosis and plastic surgery services across a much wider area.
We have three main hospitals - Frimley Park in Frimley near Camberley, Heatherwood in Ascot and Wexham Park near Slough.
Our three core values , and the behaviours that support them, guide everything we do and set out what we expect of our staff in the way they treat patients, visitors, service users and each other, Committed to Excellence, Working Together and Facing the Future .
We are also proud to host the Defence Medical Group South East at Frimley Park with military surgical, medical and nursing personnel working alongside the hospital’s NHS staff providing care to patients in all specialties
This is an outline job description, which may be subject to change in consultation with the post holder.
1. The post holder is expected to promote and implement the Trust’s equal opportunities policy.
2. The Trust operates a no smoking policy. Smoking by staff is not allowed in or on Trust premises.
3. The post holder is responsible for the management of risk in all the areas for which s/he is responsible. S/he is also responsible for ensuring compliance with the Trust’s Health and Safety Policy. The post holder must ensure that duties are carried out in accordance with health and safety regulations. The post holder should not endanger the health and safety of him/herself or others whilst at work.
4. It is an essential requirement that you take reasonable care of the cleanliness of your working environment and always adhere to infection control policies and procedures ensuring you use hand cleansing agents appropriately.
5. This job profile is not intended to be exhaustive and may be altered in consultation with the post holder. The post holder will be expected to carry out any other duties as requested to facilitate the smooth running of the Trust. The post holder is expected to always behave in a professional manner, comply with Trust policies and to act as an ambassador of the Trust

Please refer the Job description for details