Job overview

To support our team during busy periods we are looking for a suitably qualified or experienced Bank Bereavement Officer to join our busy department.

The Bereavement Officer communicates and works effectively with a wide variety of people including all grades of doctors and hospital staff, coroner's officers, funeral directors and the bereaved. She/he frequently handles sensitive and emotional situations whilst remaining professional and empathetic at all times. The post-holder has regular contact with clerical and medical staff, deceased patients’ relatives, and other outside agencies including the Coroners Office, General Practitioners and Registrars of Births/Deaths. They will also need to work closely with our local Medical Examiner Service supporting the process and regularly liaising with the team to ensure a seamless process between the two services

Daily duties include contacting ward staff and doctors for completion of necessary documentation after a death of a patient. Answering telephone enquiries, advising the deceased patients’ representatives with regards to medical certificate of cause of death, registration process, funeral arrangements and any other queries relating to the deceased. Keeping up to date records on the hospital computer systems. The role may also involve arranging funerals for patients with no next of kin.

Main duties of the job

Given the nature of the role, it can be quite an emotionally demanding but nevertheless rewarding role and the postholder will need to be able to cope with and understand peoples emotions at one of the most stressful times in their life.

For further information, please see the attached trust job description and person specification for a full list of duties and responsibilities. 

Working for our organisation

We provide emergency and non-emergency services to the residents of East Surrey, North-East West Sussex, and South Croydon, including the major towns of Crawley, Horsham, Reigate and Redhill; a community of over 535,000 people. We provide acute and complex services and a range of outpatient, diagnostic services whilst Crawley Hospital and Horsham in West Sussex and Caterham Dene Hospital and Oxted Health Centre in Surrey provide less complex planned services. In 2019 the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated our services as ‘Outstanding’ and we are one of the best performing Trusts in England:

• Winners of Health Service Journal Acute Trust of the year award 2021
• National Patient Safety Awards winner and strive to be a beacon for safety in all that we do
• We are in the top 20% nationally for staff recommending the Trust as a place to work or receive treatment
• Our staff rate us the best in the country among comparable acute trusts when asked if they would recommend the Trust as a place to work and when asked whether care of patients is the organisation’s top priority
• Our workforce are amongst the most motivated in the country; we achieved the top acute hospital score in the country for staff engagement in the last national staff survey