New scheme for suspicious deaths after family’s five-hour wait

Friday 03 July 2015

Funeral directors will take over responsibility for collecting and transporting the bodies of people who have died suddenly or in suspicious circumstances.

The news follows just weeks after a man died while on holiday here, but his body remained at the hotel where he collapsed for more than five hours because ambulance staff were too busy.

At the time, Chief Minister Ian Gorst expressed sympathy for the family involved and said that Assistant Health Minister John Refault had been asked to undertake a review of what went wrong.

Mr Refault has now announced a change in the system that means funeral directors will take over responsibility for collecting and transporting bodies after suspicious or sudden deaths, on a rota system.

There are around seven “sudden or suspicious” deaths in Jersey every month.

Mr Refault said that the change will enable ambulances to focus on emergency calls.

He said: “This is a role which our frontline ambulance staff have performed with compassion and sensitivity for a number of years.

“It is recognised by all involved that the time has come to change this arrangement so that the Ambulance staff can concentrate on emergency call-outs to those urgently in need of assistance, and other parts of their core work, while ensuring that someone who has died is still transported by a suitable caring and compassionate service from local funeral directors.”

The new scheme has been put together with input from the police and the ambulance service.