How it took six days to get a death certificate

A question about : How it took six days to get a death certificate

How it took six days to get a death certificate – issues with the West London Coroner’s Court and also the NHS 111 system.

I hope, in publishing the information below, other people will not have the stress and distress that has beset ourselves in the last week. Whilst this amounts to a complaint against the organisations involved, I feel it is far better for this to be out in the open and possibly prevent some of the problems now, not in the future.

This is no way to treat the dead or their grieving relatives.

Last Saturday my wife’s cousin died at home in the borough of Hillingdon. He had terminal cancer, it was expected, and the District nurse had attended a few minutes after he died.

It took NHS 111 7 Hours to get an on-call Doctor to attend and certify life extinct. On my last call I was asked “what is wrong with Mr C”.

Yes it is worrying to be waiting for a doctor to attend to any loved one, but having to wait for 7 hours following a death was particularly unpleasant. The undertakers arrived 8 hours after the death, by this time the body of the deceased had deteriorated and his partner, of over 40 years, could not have properly said goodbye to him without considerable distress to her.

Unfortunately as he had not been seen by a doctor within the last 14 days, the death had to be referred to the Coroner in order for the GP to issue a death certificate. Without the death certificate, the death cannot be registered, funeral arranged and his affairs dealt with.

It took West London Coroners Court until the following Friday Morning to tell the GP, who had informed them on Monday Morning, that because the body was taken to a morgue in the adjacent Coroners’ area, he would not deal with the paperwork.

However, the North London Coroners Court said there was absolutely no reason that it could not be dealt with by the Coroner whose area covered where the person died. Fortunately the North London coroner’s officer dealt with the matter immediately and the problem was resolved within an hour.

There is no way that it is acceptable to delay a straight forward case such as this by 5 days.

This is not an isolated case – there needs to be an enquiry into what is going on. Calling the West London Coroner by phone is incredible frustrating. My call on Friday took 2 hours and 19 minutes for it to be answered, there is no facility to leave a message. Only 2 staff were working out of a complement of eleven, others have gone sick, unsurprisingly.

The Coroner’s Officers are employed by the Metropolitan Police whilst the Coroner is a council appointment.

West London Coroner’s Court covers six London Boroughs: Hammersmith and Fulham, Kingston upon Thames, Ealing, Hammersmith, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond.
They do not publish their email address: coroner.referrals@lbhf.gov.uk . This email address causes confusion if you do not know the setup.

Web sites show inaccurate information and at least one phone number that goes straight to a full mail box (01895 237286, LB Hillingdon).

North London Coroners Court covers five London Boroughs: Barnet, Brent, Harrow, Haringey and Enfield and their offices are run by the LB of Haringey.

This is only a brief summary of the efforts that I made during the week in order to get the Death Certificate issued.

I am fortunate that I am quite resilient – but again, I find myself dealing with ridiculously frustrating situations that older, or vulnerable, people would find impossible to understand and resolve.

Best answers:

• How? Easy, get your loved one to die before a bank holiday. Job done.
• What a sad situation to be in, and it is good that you want to save others from having a similar experience. Perhaps your MP would be able to assist you with your complaints so that you can help the family in the grieving process.
• Thanks for the comments.
  It would be less messy to die in Hospital but that was not the wishes of my cousin.
  I have made formal complaints.
  Hillingdon borough was very understanding and I have agreed to help them re-write their internet content and they will be following things up.
  LB Hammersmith and Fulham replied with an absolute gem of incompetence. The complaint is much fuller than I have published on MSE. It made clear that they are the lead authority, host the coroner's officers, and provide the phone system.
  Their reply was to make the complaint to Hillingdon Council and also telephone the coroner's officers to make a complaint to them. Another 2 hours 19 minutes to get a reply?
• Sorry for your loss.
  was there any reason you couldnt ring the local GP? Rather than 111? Or perhaps I have misnderstood there?
• ^^the local GP surgery was probably closed due to it bring the weekend, and calls diverted to 111.
• I think part of the difficulty is that the patient had not been seen by the GP in the last 2 weeks.
  I am a daytime GP and also work OOH. Any of our patients with terminal Ca would be seen fairly frequently - partly because we are aware of the problem caused by them not being seen withing 2 week and also because they often need changes to medication and reviewing for symptom control.
  Also when doing OOH I often see people who are deteriorating in nursing homes etc - mainly I suspect so that the certificate can be completed without any problems - these tend to be people with long standing chronic illness who may live 6 -12 months and are probably seen every couple of months.
• Thanks for the comments.
  The NHS 111 service cover the out of hours normal calls but I do understand locally that there is a bypass number that the nurse could have access to to call the out of hours Doctors service directly.
  Unfortunately the GP did not see him when he took a significant downturn a couple of days before he died. Things would have been easier but it does not excuse the delays.
• My husband and brother in law have had the same problems this week trying to get a death certificate for my 89 year old mother in law who died last Saturday evening in a nursing home. Her death had to be certified by the coroner as her GP was on holiday this week and the earliest appointment they could get with a registrar was today. As we live more than 200 miles away my husband has had to stay up there to sort things out with his brother causing all sorts of problems. Why on earth can it take so long? She was very poorly and in fact the GP had a telephone conversation with us on the Thursday before she died saying that he would recommend a DNR and an end of life care plan as the end was nigh. Even the funeral directors have been amazed at the delay and has made a distressing situation even worse for my husband who had to watch me and our daughters travel home on Monday leaving him behind to sort out red tape and travel home tomorrow on his own!! Luckily he has had his brother for support so if he had been alone it would have been even worse.