Post Mortems - FOI Response Register

2023-698

Post Mortems

12/02/2024

Q1	How many patients pass through your morgue each year?	NHS Shetland does not have a Morgue
Q2	Approximately what proportion of these have a cardiac implantable device in situ? (PPM, ICD, ILR)	NHS Shetland does not have a Morgue
Q3	Does the hospital morgue also take deaths from the community, or is it for inpatients only?	NHS Shetland does not have a Morgue
Q4	Is there a cardiac physiology department on site at your hospital?	YES
Q5	If a patient has a cardiac device in situ, is it routine practice for a device check to be undertaken after death?	NO
Q6a	If yes, is the information regarding rhythm/therapies at the time of death routinely added to the patient’s notes/hospital record?	Choose an item.
Q6b	If yes, is the information regarding rhythm/therapies at the time of death routinely passed on to the clinical team?	Choose an item.
Q7	If no and this is not routine practice, are there ever exceptions to this, i.e., occasions where a post-death device check is requested by the clinical team?	YES
Q8	If yes, please elaborate (for example, how often or under what circumstances this occurs).	I have been in post since October 2020 and I have not been asked to do so yet.

Note: A lot of our pacing patients are on remote monitoring therefore we will often be able to get the downloads from their devices without having to attend the morgue. Usually, these monitors are beside the patient’s beds and automatically transmit to us so we are able to see if an arrhythmia was present at time of death. This is certainly true for ICD’s (not all Brady devices)