Porter becomes Black Country hospital's first mortuary guardian

Daimon Winters, who works at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, has inspired the creation of a new role to oversee the transfer of deceased patients from their place of death to the hospital mortuary.

The 49-year-old, from Bilston, has been a porter at the trust for eight years.

The role, based at New Cross Hospital, was introduced after he stepped forward to assist with various aspects of mortuary work in response to a request for help from patient services last year.

As part of the job, which was established by facilities support officer Lee Pearson, in discussion with portering and management teams, Mr Winters responds to requests from the bereavement team to dress the patients in the clothes chosen for them to be buried in.

The father-of-four and grandfather-of-one said: “I see myself as the liaison between porters and the mortuary and it means there is a more orderly process for the safe transfer of the deceased.

“It feels very respectful to think you’ve done a good job for the people’s families who are grieving and I’ve had a lot of positive feedback.

"But I couldn’t have done it without the support of Lee and the mortuary staff.”

He will now train small groups of porters over a 16-week period for the benefit of staff to understand care after death in more detail.

Dr Wendy Walker, reader in nursing (end-of-life care and bereavement), said: “Daimon’s commitment to supporting the mortuary team, together with the development of new skills and abilities, has inspired the development and implementation of a new initiative at New Cross Hospital.”

Mr Pearson said: “The mortuary guardian is an essential position to provide families – as well as ward staff – with the peace of mind that their loved ones are being safely and respectfully transferred from the ward to the hospital mortuary.

“Our goal is to give the ward staff and families the assurance that the care and dignity for their family member is maintained and continued while in our porter’s care.

“Daimon’s previous experience in the mortuary made him the perfect candidate for this role and he’s helped put the training plan together and implement it across the portering department.”