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Mortuary Technician | London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust

Posting date:	07 May 2024
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	Per annum
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	06 June 2024
Location:	Harrow, HA1 3UJ
Company:	London North West Healthcare NHS Trust
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	6181814/338-NP-6727DG

Summary

The post-holder is responsible for assisting in the provision of the Mortuary service Trust wide; there are three mortuaries within the Trust located at Northwick Park, Ealing and Central Middlesex Hospitals. Work in this area requires frequent exposure to highly distressing and emotive situations in addition to periods of intense physical activity with the need to maintain concentration for long periods. The post-holder will ensure that resources are used optimally and that documentation and records are created accurately and kept appropriately and will carry out duties to support the efficient running of the mortuaries. There will be rotation of duties with the mortuary staff across all sites according to operational requirements.
To ensure that the deceased and their relatives are treated at all times with dignity and respect and perform a broad range of technical work activities ensuring provision of an efficient service that is in accordance with Trust, Coroner’s and Department of Health regulations and
requirements.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Oversee and provide a mortuary service at LNWH NHS Trust. To show initiative and judgement and make prompt decisions to facilitate the smooth running of the mortuary service. Previous experience is required and some training will be provided.
• To establish and maintain good working relationships with staff within the Trust, the Coroner's
• Office, funeral directors, Police and members of the public.
To attend meetings as and when necessary to represent the department and provide specialist
advice and information.
• To manage resources in the event of a major incident being declared in accordance with guidance from the Emergency Planning Team.
• To provide support to the Pathology Services Manager when required.
Administration
• To maintain the safe and dignified reception, storage and release of all deceased patients and their property, ensuring all documentation is accurate and complete, enabling funeral arrangements to be made without delay.
• To ensure complete and accurate recording systems are maintained daily to enable efficient information retrieval, and to collate and provide this data as required.
• To facilitate the timely completion of cremation certificates.
• To handle payment for cremation certificates and arrange collection of fees.
• To ensure consent forms for hospital post-mortem examinations are accurate and complete.
• To liaise with the Coroner’s Office and Police regarding forensic cases and facilitate the identification of unidentified deceased patients.
• To liaise with the Patient Services department regarding deceased patients in long term storage.
• To receive fetal remains from the Histopathology department, ensuring documentation is accurate and complete, arranging the sensitive disposal with the crematorium; organising collection by the funeral directors and arranging the service with the Trust
chaplain.
• To participate in the design and future planning of departmental refurbishment.
• To review departmental standard operating procedures, risk assessments and where applicable Trust wide policies.
• To arrange viewings for bereaved families, where possible respecting the cultural and religious wishes of the deceased and their family.
• To ensure all documentation regarding tissue donation is legal, complete and accurate before retrieval.
• To report damage to furnishings/equipment to Estates department.
• To monitor stock levels and place requisitions for stock and non-stock orders, ensuring adequate levels of linen, consumables and chemicals are available to maintain continuity of service.
• To report daily capacity levels to information management.
• To work according to Trust and local policies.
• To keep up to date with current mortuary practices and guidance from the Health and Safety Executive and Department of Health.
• To record incidents on the Datix system, investigate and close incidents related to the mortuary.
• To provide funeral directors with advice regarding the infectious status of cases, whilst maintaining patient confidentiality.
• To advise bereaved families on health and safety when viewing high risk cases.
• To monitor the security of the department and supervise visitors to the department at all
times.
• To carry out a monthly environmental audit within the department.
• To maintain a clean and tidy working environment, dealing with spillages of blood and body fluids according to Trust policy.


Technical
• To deliver care after death to all deceased patients in line with national guidance,
respecting the religious or cultural wishes of the deceased and their family, where possible and ensuring legal obligations are met.
• To prepare the deceased for viewing, using specialised techniques to ensure the deceased looks presentable.
• To dress deceased patients in accordance with bereaved families requests where possible.
• To be the main hospital point of contact for audits relating to deceased patients.
• To record coffin sizes for funeral directors.
• To remove cardiac devices, medical lines and tubes from the deceased patient when necessary.
• To assist with the identification and deactivation of implantable cardioverter defibrillators by liaising with the clinicians and Cardiology department.


Teaching and Training
• To ensure mandatory and statutory training is up to date.
• To participate in the training of porters in the admission of deceased patients to the mortuary, use of the concealment trolley, viewing trolley and hoist and completion of mortuary admission sheets.


Public liaison
• To advise and inform bereaved families on a variety of sensitive and emotive issues i.e. tissueretrieval, need for post-mortem examination, death process, contract funerals etc.
• To work with the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management to offer advice andpractical assistance to families arranging funerals without the use of a funeral director.
• To remain calm and professional when dealing with distressed relatives in highly emotivesituations.

Out of hours on-call service
• Offer specialist advice and assistance to Trust staff and external service users
• To attend the mortuary department as a member of the major incident team in the event of a major incident being declared and staying in attendance until the Trust has been ‘stood down’.
• Preparing high risk, bariatric, purging deceased patients for viewing.
• Preparing babies and children for viewing in the mortuary viewing room.
• To attend the mortuary to release deceased patients ensuring the release documentation is complete and accurate and property is signed for.
• To facilitate prompt access for the NHSBT team for eye and tissue retrieval, supervision of teams whilst on site, checking consent forms are accurate and ensuring the post-mortem room is cleaned
and disinfected and secured after use.
• To facilitate the prompt and secure release of forensic cases, ensuring samples, documents and property are obtained, collected and signed for by the Coroner’s contracted funeral director.
• To respond to the body storage unit alarms; check for faults, report to the Estates duty manager, wait for an engineer to attend, supervise the engineer whilst on site; if necessary make decisions
regarding the transfer of the deceased patients to an alternative body storage unit.
• To attend site and ensure all electrical systems in the department are running correctly following Trust generator tests.
• To respond to calls from the Estates department in relation to issues within the mortuary building. i.e. flooding


ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
INFORMATION GOVERNANCE
All NHS workers must abide at all times by the Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice document issued by the Department of Health, and follow the relevant confidentiality and privacy policies specifically
adopted by the Trust. Information relating to patients, employees and business of the Trust must be treated in the strictest confidence and under no circumstances should such information be discussed
with any unauthorised person(s) or organisations. All information collected, stored and used must be done so in compliance with the Data Protection Act, the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and all
relevant Trust Policy. Breaches of confidentiality or information governance protocol may lead to
disciplinary action.


INFORMATION SECURITY
All staff must adhere to the requirements of the Trust’s Information Security Policy, which covers the deployment and use of all of the Trust’s electronic information systems (i.e. all computers, peripheral
equipment, software and data). In serious cases, failure to comply with the Policy may result in disciplinary action and could also result in a criminal offence.


HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK Act (1974)
You are required to take reasonable care for your health, safety and welfare and that of other people who
may be affected by your actions or omissions. These responsibilities apply at all times whilst you are at work or on duty and apply to all Trust premises and also whilst working in the community or on any other
Trust business.


EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND EQUALITIES LEGISLATION
It is the policy of London North West Healthcare NHS Trust that no user of service, present or future
employee or job applicant receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of their sex, perceived or
actual sexual orientation, marital status, race, religion or belief, age, creed, colour, nationality, national origin, ethnic origin, or disability, or on the grounds of their association with someone in one of these
groups; nor is disadvantaged by any conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justified.


PATIENT & PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT
Section 11 of the Health & Social Care Act 2001, places a duty on NHS organisations to involve and consult patients, the public and other stakeholders in the planning and ongoing development of services.
It is the responsibility of each member of staff, clinical and non-clinical to appropriately involve and consult patients, the public and otherstakeholders.


RISK MANAGEMENT
You are required to contribute to the control of risk and use the incident reporting system to alert the Trust of incidents or near misses that may compromise the quality of services.


CORPORATE / CLINICAL GOVERNANCE
It is the duty of every employee to fulfil their individual clinical governance responsibilities and their expected contribution to ensuring that the Trust complies with benchmarked standards for quality of clinical care.


INFECTION CONTROL AND HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED INFECTION
Infection Control is everyone’s responsibility. All staff, both clinical and non-clinical, are required to adhere
to the Trust’s Infection Prevention and Control Policies and make every effort to maintain high standards
to infection control at all times thereby reducing the burden of Healthcare Associated Infections including MRSA. In particular all staff have the following key responsibilities:
• Staff must wash their hands or use alcohol hand rub on entry to or exit from all clinical areas and between each patient contact.
• Staff members have a duty to attend infection control training provided for them by the Trust.

Staff members who develop an infection that may be transmissible to patients have a duty to contact Occupational Health.


SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS
We all have a personal and a professional responsibility within the Trust to identify and report abuse. The abuse may be known, suspected, witnessed or be limited to raised concerns. Early recognition is vital
to ensuring the patient is safeguarded and any other people (children and vulnerable adults) who may be at risk. The Trust’s procedures must be implemented, working in partnership with the relevant
authorities. The sharing of information no matter how small is of prime importance in safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults. As an employee of the Trust you have a responsibility to
ensure that:
a) you are familiar with and adhere to the Trusts procedures and guidelines for safeguarding children
and vulnerable adults
b) you attend safeguarding awareness training and undertake any additional training in relation to
safeguarding relevant to your role.


STAFF COMMITMENT TO PATIENT CARE
You are expected to ensure that patients’ needs, experience and safety come first and to treat patients,
carers, visitors, and colleagues with dignity and respect.


HEALTH RECORDS
Clinical staff must keep accurate and clear information which is essential for the proper care of patients.
Clinical and non-clinical staff who handle or use, case notes are individually responsible for the
confidentiality, tracking, filing and good order of the case note at all times as outlined in the Medical Records Policy and the Information Lifecycle Management Policy. For further information refer to;
Department of Health website-Records Management; NHS Code of Practice- 2006

NHS CONSTITUTION AND CODE OF CONDUCT FOR MANAGERS
Staffs are required to act in accordance with the legal duties and expectations relating to their responsibilities to the public, their patients and colleagues set out in section 3b of the NHS Constitution
and pages 98-109 of the Handbook to the NHS Constitution. For Managerial staff, including anyone with supervisory responsibility, the core standards of conduct set out in the NHS Code of Conduct for NHS
Managers (2002) or any subsequent amendments.
This list is only an indication of the main tasks required to be performed. It is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities and may be subject to amendments to take account of changing circumstances.
The Trust reserves the right that you may be required to undertake such other duties and/or hours of work as may reasonably be required of you commensurate with your grade at your normal place of work or from another location within the Trust.

London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH) cares for the people of Brent, Ealing, Harrow and beyond.

Our team of more than 8,200 clinical and support staff serve a diverse population of almost one million people.

We run major acute services at:
• Northwick Park Hospital: home to one of the busiest emergency departments (A&E) in the country. The hospital provides a full range of services including the country’s top-rated hyper-acute stroke unit and one of only three hyper-acute rehabilitation units in the UK
• St Mark’s Hospital: an internationally renowned specialist centre for bowel disease
• Ealing Hospital: a busy district general hospital providing a range of clinical services, as well as 24/7 emergency department and urgent care centre, and specialist care at Meadow House Hospice
• Central Middlesex Hospital: our planned care site, hosting a range of surgical and outpatient services and collocated with an urgent care centre.

We are a university teaching NHS trust, in recognition of the important role we play in training clinicians of the future and bringing the benefits of research to the public.


This advert closes on Tuesday 21 May 2024