Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I respond on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. One of the recommendations of the Madden report on post-mortem practices and procedures was that an independent audit of retained organs in the State be undertaken. The report of this audit, which was undertaken by Michaela Willis, was published and made publicly available by the HSE in July.

The Willis audit recommended that service level agreements be put in place with external operators who use hospital premises for embalming procedures to ensure that quality, safety and performance levels are clearly defined.

On foot of this recommendation, the HSE wrote to its hospital network managers on 16 July 2009 setting out new arrangements for embalming at hospitals. It should be noted that 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. This does not affect mortuary services provided by hospitals, such as the removal of the remains of a deceased patient. It should also be noted that embalming is a separate and distinct service, which is not part of the procedures followed by mortuaries when preparing the bodies of deceased persons following their death. Embalming is an additional option which is chosen by some families for their deceased loved ones and is therefore provided on a commercial basis.

The memorandum issued to hospital network managers advised that staff in hospitals operated or funded by the HSE are contracted to provide safe and high quality care to patients and their families and that individual staff members should not enter into contracts with commercial entities to provide additional services while in the direct employ of the HSE or in the employ of hospitals funded by the HSE.

Under the new arrangements for embalming in hospitals, the HSE now requires that standard controls are put in place in those hospitals the facilities of which are being used for embalming purposes by undertakers or funeral directors. Each hospital wishing to continue to facilitate an embalming service must develop a service level agreement with each commercial entity that wishes to use a hospital's facilities for embalming purposes. This is in line with good governance.

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