New bereavement centre opens at The Royal Oldham Hospital

Trust’s Associate Director of Nursing, Fiona Murphy MBE

A new bereavement centre at The Royal Oldham Hospital will open its doors to the public for the first time on Thursday (8 June) following an opening event, taking place at 2pm at the Chalmers Keddie building.

The opening event will be attended by retired Senior Coroner, Simon Nelson, who will give a short speech; Nicola Firth, Director of Nursing at The Royal Oldham Hospital; and Mr Jawad 

The centre is the second of four new bereavement centres to open at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. The bereavement centre at North Manchester General Hospital opened last month and the others located at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury and Rochdale Infirmary will open soon at dates to be confirmed.

Fiona Murphy MBE, Associate Director of Nursing at the Trust said: “I am really excited and proud to open this new bereavement centre at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

"A great many staff across the Trust from porters, to nurses, to managers, have all gone above and beyond the call of duty to make sure this vitally important service could get up and running as soon as possible.

"I know that the centre will have a huge impact on the service and support given to those that have lost a loved one at The Royal Oldham Hospital.”

The centre is located in the Chalmers Keddie building, where the chapel and general offices are located, and is staffed by a fully trained bereavement specialist nurse.

Each bereavement centre will offer the following services: 

• The provision of bereavement support to patients and families when death is expected, as well as when death is unexpected
• Compassionate care every time for patients and their families
• Equitable care to every patient regardless of place of death
• Families will get offered the choice for mementoes from their loved one, which will include hand, footprints and locks of hair
• All families will receive the correct information about care after death and receive a follow up call as appropriate from the bereavement specialist nurse
• Bereavement resources for staff to access 24 hours a day seven days a week for patients and families, for example z-beds for relatives to stay overnight, memory boxes, and wedding, birthday, celebration, spiritual care resource boxes.

In addition to these services the Trust will hold monthly bereavement study days for all staff members involved in the delivery of End of Life Care (EoLC) and bereavement. The bereavement specialist nurses will also offer real time coaching to staff working within EoLC/bereavement to up skill the workforce.

In February, the Trust launched the Swan end of life care model which offers dedicated support to patients in the last days of life and to their families into bereavement and beyond.
The Swan scheme is a national scheme which is present in 47 Trusts up and down the country. It was set up by the Trust’s Associate Director of Nursing, Fiona Murphy MBE.