After body mix-up, NEA issues rules requiring funeral parlours to tag bodies, lock embalming rooms

SINGAPORE — Less than two weeks after a mix-up at a funeral parlour led to the cremation of a wrong body, the authorities are imposing tougher rules on licensed parlour operators, including a requirement for them to use body identification tags bearing the name and sex of a deceased person.

TODAY has learnt that licensed operators must also ensure that embalming rooms and spaces used to hold bodies are always locked, with access limited to authorised staff members.

The National Environment Agency (NEA), which regulates funeral parlours, spelt out these guidelines last Friday (Jan 10) in a circular to licensed funeral parlours with embalming facilities — a copy of which was seen by TODAY.

The new rules were released 11 days after the body of Kee Kin Tiong, 82, was wrongly cremated on Dec 30 last year ahead of his funeral rites. The Straits Times reported on the mix-up on Jan 3.

This happened after an employee of funeral director Harmony Funeral Care mistook Kee's body for the dead relative of another client when collecting it from the embalming room of funeral parlour Century Products.

Century Products’ licence has been suspended and the company is set to be charged in court.

Harmony Funeral Care has been barred from using government after-death facilities at Mandai Crematorium and Chua Chu Kang Crematorium and Cemetery.

In the circular to the 22 licensed parlours here, Mr Chew Ming Fai, NEA’s director-general of public health, said that the incident highlighted the need to strengthen procedures for the handling of bodies by all parties who are involved.

“As a licensed funeral parlour, it is your responsibility to ensure that bodies received into the premises are properly accounted for, without mix-up, and are handled in a dignified and respectful manner,” Mr Chew said.

He asked the licensees to disseminate the guidelines to all staff members and funeral directors who use their premises. “NEA will conduct further follow-up inspections to check on compliance, starting from (this) week.”

Here are the rules at a glance:

1. Before and when a body arrives

• Enough space for embalming: Licensees must ensure that an embalming facility has enough room before accepting a body for embalming or preparation before burial or cremation.

• Identification tags: Licensees must ensure that a system is in place to identify each body when it arrives at the parlour until it departs. An identification tag must bear the name and sex of a deceased person, the name of the funeral company that brought it in, and services needed for the body, such as washing and embalming. This tag, written in English, is to be attached securely to the body at all times. Licensees are expected to have this in place within two days of receiving the circular, and provide NEA with the steps in their identification system within two weeks.

• Record-keeping: The licensee or an employee of the licensed parlour must always be present when a body is taken to the premises, and record all the details of the body in a register, as stipulated in the Environmental Public Health (Funeral Parlours) Regulations. Under the regulations, the register must contain, for instance, the name, address, age and sex of a deceased person, and the date, place and cause of death.

2. Access controls

• Lock embalming rooms at all times: Licensed parlours must also ensure that embalming rooms and spaces used to hold bodies are always locked and access is confined to authorised crew. This rule took effect immediately last Friday. Every opening into the room that the public cannot access must be marked with a “No Admittance” sign in English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

• No other bodies in embalming room: Where a deceased person’s family is allowed into the embalming room for ritual washing, licensed parlours are to ensure that the room does not have other bodies. Where this is not possible, the parlours must have a partition or screen to maintain the dignity of the dead and of other clients.

3. Proper holding rooms 

Licensees must also ensure that there are proper spaces, away from public view, to hold bodies before and after embalming.

4. Competent embalmers

Licensed operators must engage only competent embalmers and maintain a register of all embalmers working on the premises. NEA has asked all licensees to provide it with details of embalmers who use their premises within 30 days of the circular — including their nationality and whether they attended basic infection control training.

5. Releasing correct body

The licensed parlour must have a system to check that the correct body is being handed over. The licensee or an employee must be present always when the body is taken out of the parlour and record this in the register.

WHAT SOME OPERATORS SAY 

Parlour operators told TODAY that most of the guidelines were already being practised in some form and were not too onerous.  

Mr Ang Ziqian, deputy chairman of the Ang Chin Moh Group of Companies, which runs two licensed parlours — Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors in Geylang Bahru and Flying Home in Toa Payoh — said that the circular was a “timely reminder” for licensed operators, particularly after the recent body mix-up.

Mr Ang believes that most licensed operators would be able to comply with the guidelines.

For instance, on top of identification tags provided by hospitals, which include information such as a deceased person’s name, gender and cause of death, Mr Ang’s funeral parlours attach a “transfer slip” to every client detailing the belongings found on the deceased, such as rings or dentures, and the services ordered.  

Staff members gain entry to the Flying Home’s embalming room via fingerprint scans, and to the embalming facility at Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors via a key, Mr Ang said.  

Mr Chua Ah Seng, the person-in-charge at Dignity Funeral Services, said that the parlour in Geylang Bahru keeps a register that includes the name of deceased persons, the time they entered the premises, and the funeral company and vehicle that transported them.

The parlour does not remove the hospital identification tags on bodies when they arrive, Mr Chua said.

When bodies are removed after embalming, a record is kept, too, on the time they left the premises.

“(The new rules) are complicated as these were not done before, but they make the process a bit safer. Without these, a mistake could happen again,” he added in Mandarin.

Mr Chua keeps watch at the parlour in the day. At night, only those with a passcode can enter.

Asked about the rule requiring the licensee or a staff member to be present whenever a body is on the premises, Mr Chua said that his parlour receives no more than two bodies at night each month. “I will explain to (NEA). Here, we don’t do many cases (at night),” he said.

Mr Teo Kian Seng, supervisor at Jin Lu Funeral Service in Geylang Bahru, said that his parlour would comply with the new rules, and already has identification tags and a staff member on duty at night, for example. 

Mr Nicky Teo, chief executive officer of the Singapore Funeral Company, said that the Singapore Funeral Parlour — an NEA licensee and a sister company under the Crescendas Group — had no issues abiding by the rules. Its embalming room is set to be renovated and will open in a few months.

Even so, Mr Teo said that he is worried about smaller operators with fewer resources who cannot deploy staff members round-the-clock.

“Not all operators have the scale to hire full-time staff to be on rotating shifts. So, in the end, will the staff have to work overtime? The costs will have to be transferred to the clients — the family members,” Mr Teo said.

He suggested that instead of placing the onus on staff members to check the bodies, families who engage smaller operators could take part in the process of identifying their loved ones at the parlours.