What to do when you have a bereavement

Bereavement at Home

If someone has died at home or in a nursing home it is often both natural and expected. The death will usually be confirmed by a qualified professional and you are able to contact a funeral director when you are ready to do so, the time of day or night does not matter as we will be there when you need us.

If the death is unexpected then the person may be taken to hospital by ambulance, if resuscitation is attempted. The police will also attend and if the death is confirmed they will notify the coroner. If you would like us to come and transfer your loved one to nearest hospital we suggest you request this with the policer officer looking after you at the time. If, in the unlikely even we are not able to assist in the request from the police we suggest you use the next available funeral director from the police and contact us during office hours to notify us of your loved ones passing.

Once the coroner has investigated the death they will contact you to advise that they are now able to be collected from the hospital, please let us know when this happens and as soon as we have our "clearance" from them we will bring them back into our care. The coroner will also send us a copy of the interim death certificate or the death certificate to distribute to you so that you can use it to inform anyone who may need to know that they have passed away, the certificate we are sent is an official legal copy.

If you think that the person may already have a funeral plan with us please let us know and we can check for you.

Bereavement at Hospital

The procedure is very similar to when a death occurs at home, but the Death Certificate comes from the Hospital not your family Doctor.

The death is registered by you for the area in which the Hospital is situated.

You may have to wait for the administration staff to contact you to give you an appointment to collect the Death Certificate, this delay may seem inconvenient however the doctor who needs to complete the certificate may not be on duty at the time.

If your loved one is being cremated the doctors will also need to fill in a form called a medical certificate cremation 4, this allows the death to be verified by the medical examiner before cremation. Once this is completed we can collect your loved one from hospital.

If you think that the person may already have a funeral plan with us please let us know and we can check for you.