§ Mr. ChidgeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list those NHS trust hospitals which employ a(a) full-time or (b) part-time bereavement officer or counsellor. [18295]
§ Mr. MilburnThe information requested is not held centrally. Bereavement counselling is undertaken by a variety of different people, depending on who within the hospital is trained to undertake the work. This may be a psychologist, a nurse trained in bereavement counselling or a counsellor called in from the community.
§ Mr. ChidgeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list(a) those hospitals which have contracted out their bereavement services to the private sector and (b) the names of the trading companies and their parent companies which have been awarded the bereavement services contracts; [18296]
(2) if he will list (a) those NHS hospitals whose bereavement officers are employees of funeral director companies and (b) trading companies and the parent companies involved. [18297]
§ Mr. MilburnThe National Health Service Executive market testing database has a record of one NHS trust, the Central Middlesex Hospital, which has contracted out its bereavement and mortuary services (but not its bereavement counselling). This contract was awarded to 89W Associated Funeral Directors whose parent company is Service Corporation International plc. The bereavement officer is an employee of Associated Funeral Directors.