£40k for medical bereavement unit

5:23pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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A support service for hundreds of bereaved families is in line for a £40,000 boost - thanks to a charity grant.

Bosses at York Hospital are drawing up plans for a new bereavement suite after winning funding from a London-based health charity called the King's Fund.

The new centre will provide grieving relatives with support and advice following the death of their loved one.

It will transform the Wigginton Road site's existing bereavement service, which hospital chiefs described as "unacceptable".

Nichola Greenwood, York Hospital's medical governance manager, said: "Winning this grant is fantastic news.

"It will enable us to improve the quality of support that we can give to families at a really difficult time for them.

"At the moment, relatives have to go to a number of different places around the hospital to get everything they need and so this new suite will centralise the facilities.

"Losing a loved one is the most difficult time in your life and the facilities we have for them at the moment are not acceptable.

"It is really exciting that we are now going to be able to change that."

York Hospital fought off stiff competition from 60 other NHS organisations across the country to land one of the £30,000 grants from the King's Fund.

The remaining £10,000 for the project will come from the hospital's own budget.

Ms Greenwood said: "It will be a place for relatives to access support and advice about the next steps after their bereavement.

"There will be one centralised place to do things like collect your loved one's belongings and get advice on organising the funeral and obtaining the death certificate.

"We have the staff, we just don't have the physical environment and improving that environment will help us to deliver a better service."

It is the second time that York Hospital has won a grant from the King's Fund - an independent charitable foundation working for better health.

In 2005, funding from the charity was used to build a garden at the hospital, where patients and relatives can enjoy a quiet and stress-free area.