There were approximately 540,338 registered deaths in England in 2022, based on provisional data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Of these, approximately 44% of deaths occurred in NHS hospitals.
Post-mortem care of their bodies is, therefore, an essential aspect of NHS health provision.
Estimating your body bag requirements
As a procurement manager for an NHS hospital, it is important to accurately estimate the body bag needs of your facility. This can be a difficult and sensitive task, because although the level of deaths and the common causes of deaths can be predicted approximately year-on-year based on monthly averages, the pattern of hospital deaths are not uniform, and sometimes situations occur that creates surplus deaths (i.e. an above-average number of deaths due to unexpected causes, such as the Covid-19 pandemic).
The important factor is to ensure you have enough body bags and that you don’t run out. It’s always better to have a slight surplus to accommodate unexpected mortalities or crises in your local area.
Furthermore, you should always have enough body bags and a range of different body bag sizes in stock to cover all potential deaths, including infant and children’s body bags, to ensure that all bodies can be stored correctly, safely, and sensitively.
Factors to consider when calculating body bag requirements for your hospital:
1. Hospital facilities and local population
The size of your healthcare facility and the patient population should be taken into account when calculating body bag requirements. A large city hospital with more patients is likely to need more body bags than a smaller rural one with fewer patients. Likewise, a hospital specialising in later life or palliative care may also need greater body bag provision than a more general hospital. Some hospitals may also have dedicated morgues or cold storage rooms that require additional body bag capacity.
2. Average mortality rate
The average mortality rate at your hospital should be considered when forecasting how many body bags to order, based on monthly or seasonal statistics and past precedents. If the forecasted mortality rate is high – e.g. due to a high number of expected influenza deaths – then it stands to reason that more body bags may be needed than if the forecasted mortality rate is low. In most years, there are clear seasonal differences in the number of deaths, with mortality rates peaking in the winter due to surplus deaths from influenza, pneumonia, and Covid-19.
3. Transportation
In some cases, NHS hospitals may need surplus body bags to transport bodies off-site for autopsies or other procedures, or for routine funerary care.
High quality body bags from Slik Pak
High quality body bags are essential assets to ensure that bodies are stored correctly, to preserve the dignity of the deceased and prevent the spread of infection around the hospital. Therefore, once you have determined how many body bags your hospital may need, you’ll need to establish a relationship with a reliable body bag supplier, such as Slik Pak.
At Slik Pak, we provide a range of cost-effective and durable NHS body bags for a variety of applications, but we invite hospitals to carry out their own research to determine the best solution for their organisation. We are happy to help with any information you need during the procurement process.
Request a quote
To find out more about our products or to request a quote for body bags for your hospital, please get in touch with one of our knowledgeable team today by calling 0161 524 7619 , or click here to send us a message.
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