When A Death Occurs
What to do when someone dies
When someone you love passes away there are a couple of steps you need to take before contacting your funeral director.
If your loved one passes at home expectedly from a long term or short-term illness you will need to contact either their GP or their dedicated care team, this may be a district nurse or a hospice nurse.
Once you have contacted them, they will attend your loved one’s side and verify their death. You are then able to contact your chosen funeral director, and they will help and support you going forward starting with bringing your loved one into their care.
If your loved one passes unexpectedly at home, you will need to contact the ambulance service on 999. They will attend the scene and decide if the police may need to be notified. The police and or the ambulance service will then tell you when it is okay for you to contact your funeral director and arrange for them to bring your loved one into their care. An unexpected death is likely to be referred to the coroner for further investigation.
If your loved one passes away in the hospital you can contact your funeral director during their office hours to notify them, they will then work with the hospital to bring your loved one into their care when all necessary paperwork is complete.
Once your loved one is safely in the care of your funeral director they will support you through all of the next steps to arrange the funeral.
In the meantime, the medical examiner will contact you within 7-10 days to discuss your loved ones passing, they will either inform you that the coroner will be involved or they will discuss with you what the appropriate cause of death for the certificate will be.
Once the agreement has been made the medical examiner will ensure that the correct documentation gets to the required registrar. The registrar will then contact you within 5 days to arrange an appointment to go and register your loved one’s death.
If your loved one is referred to the coroner, the coroner will discuss what investigations they are going to complete. Once they have completed their investigation, they will issue an interim death certificate and will release your loved one into the care of your chosen funeral director.