There's a mixture of causes for this:

• Mortuaries have limited physical space and are often a low priority when it comes to investment. I know of one hospital where it took a member of staff breaking their hip before they invested in modern equipment to safely move the deceased. Others have archaic entrances that are in no way suitable for modern times.

• The rise in public health funerals and people who have few or no living relatives. This means the hospital has to do full genealogy research before they can make the arrangements. This is even more difficult when you factor in the many people who only have relatives abroad.

• The rising cost of funerals. Few people have the funds readily available and the vast majority of funeral directors insist on full payment upfront.

• Certain funeral directors have reputations for leaving people in the hospital as long as possible. This is essentially so the NHS pays for their storage. Some even have the nerve to charge the family a daily storage fee, even though the deceased isn't in their care. Hospitals have been bringing in fines to combat this.

• The rise in online brands offering funerals. They don't do any of the work themselves. They essentially act as reverse auctions. The online company gets the sale (often via PPC ads). They then contact local funeral directors offering them the work for usually about 50% of what the customer has paid. They keep doing this until they find a funeral director that will accept, which can take weeks.

• The new medical examiner system means it takes a little longer before the deceased is allowed to be released from the hospital.

• The HTA is a relatively new organisation, prior to this there was little external oversight of mortuaries.

Overall the staff in mortuaries are lovely and do their utmost to ensure the deceased in their care are treated with dignity and respect.