Association of Anatomical Pathology Technology
News
Caring for the Deceased at Nightingale
RCPath Bulletin article from Dr Matt Clarke
On my arrival at the Nightingale Hospital, I joined a team whose remit was to construct a mortuary to look after deceased patients as part of the compassionate care team.
It is often forgotten that people who have died need looking after too, but at the Nightingale this had an added dimension of difficulty; deceased patients would be admitted to the mortuary in a body bag, which would not be opened for the duration of their stay and therefore it was imperative to ensure we had all the necessary identifiers to ensure the correct patient was released to the correct family to avoid one of the most serious never events that pathology can encounter.