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← Glossary of Funeral Terms

Collection

Collection

Collection is the term commonly used in funeral care to describe the process of taking a person who has died from the place where they are being cared for into the care of the person or organisation responsible for their funeral arrangements.

Collection may be from a private residence, hospital, residential aged care facility, hospice, coroner, accident scene or another location. What is required can vary considerably depending on where the person is being collected from and the circumstances of the death.

You do not have to use a funeral service provider. In Queensland, there is no legal requirement for a person to engage a funeral director, undertaker or other funeral service provider to collect, transport or store a person who has died. A family member or other person with the appropriate authority may undertake the collection themselves.

Collection from a hospital. Queensland hospitals will generally require an Authority to Release before releasing a person who has died. The hospital may also have its own procedures for confirming the identity of the person collecting and documenting the release.

The document is sometimes referred to as a Standard Authority to Release, although there does not appear to be a single Queensland-wide document formally established under that name. What matters is that the facility is satisfied that the person requesting the release has the appropriate authority.

You may collect someone yourself. A hospital cannot simply require a family to employ a funeral service provider because the family wants to collect their person themselves. However, collecting a person is a practical task as well as an administrative one. If the person is in a body bag and the person collecting them cannot safely carry or move the person without assistance from hospital staff, the facility may have legitimate grounds not to provide that physical assistance. Hospital staff are generally not required to lift or carry a deceased person into a private vehicle.

The vehicle. There is no specific requirement that a particular type of vehicle must be used to collect a person who has died. The vehicle and the way the person is transported must nevertheless comply with applicable Queensland road rules and requirements concerning the safe restraint of a load.

The references found regarding the transport of a deceased person generally concern respect for the deceased, rather than prescribing a particular vehicle or body of vehicle.

Who can authorise a release? Where there is no other legal restriction, the authority to have a person released generally follows the hierarchy that applies to the potential appointment of an administrator of the estate. This can include a surviving spouse or partner, children, other descendants, parents, siblings and progressively more distant relatives.

A Personal Representative may also have authority where they are the executor appointed under a Will or an administrator appointed by the Supreme Court.

Release is different from funeral arrangements. The person who has authority to have someone released does not necessarily have to be the person who provides the funeral services. A family may arrange for the person to be released directly to themselves, to another family member or to a funeral service provider of their choice.

Why the paperwork matters. An Authority to Release provides a facility with a clear record of who has authorised the release and who is receiving the person. It sits alongside other documentation relating to the person’s death and subsequent care.

For funeral service providers, collection is therefore more than simply picking someone up. It is the point at which responsibility and physical care of the person moves from one place or organisation to another.