Your First Steps

What to do when someone dies

When someone dies a medical professional needs to come and verify the death.

If a person dies at home you should call the person’s doctor or the NHS helpline 111. Once the death has been verified it may be your wish that the deceased be taken to our Chapel of Rest. Call us at any hour, day or night, on 01983 529090 to arrange this.

If the death has occurred in the Hospice, Nursing or Residential Home, they will arrange for a medical professional to verify the death and if instructed the deceased can be taken to the funeral director’s Chapel of Rest.

If the death has occurred in a Hospital, they will arrange for a medical professional to verify the death and will liaise with ourselves as to when the deceased can be taken to the funeral director’s Chapel of Rest.

Depending upon where the death occurred, contact either the Hospital Bereavement Services (St Mary’s Newport 01983 524081), the Hospice (Mountbatten hospice 01983 529511) or the relevant GP Surgery so that they can advise you upon the availability of the ‘medical cause of death certificate’, sometimes known as death certificate. When the death certificate is available it must be provided to the registrar of births, marriages and deaths and the death registered. Once the death certificate is available, contact the Registrars to make an appointment (IW Registrars 01983 823233).

Sometimes, a doctor is not able to issue a death certificate and the Coroner may be referred to. The coroner is a judicial officer whose function it is to determine the cause of death in all cases where a doctor has not been able to issue a death certificate. The fact that a death has been reported to the coroner should not give cause for undue alarm. The death may have been sudden or unexplained, the result of a road accident, or soon after admission to hospital. These are just some of the reasons why a death may be reported to the coroner.  More info …

Rest assured that we are able to advise as to the correct actions to take.

Useful information

• Where possible, deaths should be registered in 5 working days
• There are rules set that define when a doctor is allowed or not allowed to issue a death certificate. The doctor can refer to the Coroner and may be allowed to issue a death certificate or the Coroner may decide that they will need to decide the cause of death. More info …