Complete guide to hospital death procedures, bereavement offices, and collecting belongings and documentation.
This guide is part of ProbateHelp's First Steps guide cluster. Estimated reading time: 10 min.
Also searched as: dies in hospital.
You choose. The hospital will release the body to whichever funeral director you instruct. If you do not have one in mind, the bereavement office can give you a list of local directors, but they will not make the choice for you. Take your time — there is no rush to decide on the day.
In England and Wales, the 5-day registration period starts when the bereavement office or medical examiner's office confirms that the death can be registered — not from the date or time of death. If the death happened on a Friday and the bereavement office is closed at weekends, you may not hear until Monday. In practice, you should still have time to book the appointment once registration is cleared.
Usually not. The ward will secure belongings and pass them to the bereavement office or Patient Affairs team. You will need to collect them during office hours, with identification. Some items — like a phone or wallet — may be held by the ward and returned to you sooner. Ask the ward staff.
Not necessarily. Coroner referrals are routine in many circumstances — any death that was sudden, unexpected, or where the cause is not immediately clear must be referred, regardless of whether the care was good or bad. The coroner's role is to establish the cause of death, not to investigate wrongdoing. If you have concerns about the care your loved one received, you can raise them separately with the hospital's Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).
Yes. Ask the bereavement office to arrange a viewing in the hospital's viewing room. This is available to families at most NHS hospitals and is free of charge. Once the body has been transferred to the funeral director, viewings are arranged through them instead.
No. The funeral director will liaise directly with the hospital. You may be asked to sign an authorisation form, but this can often be done by phone or email. You do not need to be at the hospital for the collection.
Raise them with the medical examiner when they call — this is genuinely the right moment, and they are trained to listen. For a more formal process, contact the hospital's PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service). For a serious complaint, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is the final escalation route. None of this needs to happen in the first few days.