[VIDEO] Charity Grant Transforms Mortuary Waiting Room
15 September 2023
The team at St George’s Hospital Mortuary facilitate and support relatives to visit their deceased loved ones, during a really important and difficult time for grieving families.
The waiting room and viewing room were tired looking, with stained sofas which were not infection control compliant nor able to be cleaned. The space needed to be transformed into a place that was more calming to support the relatives and visitors using the rooms.
The Mortuary Team worked with the St George’s Trust Estates Team to repaint the rooms, deep clean the carpet and buff the flooring, giving the space a fresh, clean look.
Doreen Mangion, Head of Nursing for Outpatients and Diagnostics, said: “We really wanted to improve the environment for relatives of the deceased as it’s such an important time for them, so the Charity kindly sponsored us.”
Arts St George’s, collaborated with the Mortuary Team to create a mood board using fresh, calming colours to redecorate the space and select new infection-control-compliant sofas, new cushions, coffee tables and some beautiful new artwork.
Sarah Grainger-Jones, Head of Arts at St George’s Hospital Charity, said: “We worked with the Mortuary team to select new furniture, to select artworks and cushions and other furnishings within the space, to create a calmer environment for families to come at a difficult time.
“We selected some beautiful prints by artist Angela Lewin, and we chose furniture, cushions, and other items within the space to all work together on the theme and the colour to create a more calming space.”
Doreen added: “It’s a real improvement for the families waiting to view their loved ones.”
The Charity welcomes all staff at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to apply for grants. If you’re a member of Trust staff you can find out more about our grant-making here.
