When someone passes away at home, or in a nursing home, the first thing to do is to contact the doctor’s surgery that they were registered with. Someone will then come out and will be able to confirm that death has occurred. If death occurs outside of normal surgery hours, then an “on call doctor” will take the place of the regular GP.

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When the Doctor, or qualified person, has verified the death you will be advised to contact your chosen Funeral Director. Should you wish for us to be your chosen Funeral Director, we will ask a few questions about the person who has passed away and yourself as the caller. Our aim will then be to arrive within one hour to bring them into our care

Deaths are referred to the coroner by the GP, emergency services or Medical Examiner if the death is sudden, or the cause of death cannot be readily established by the GP.

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This can simply be because the person has not been seen by the doctor within the last 14 days, or because the person may have died from something other than that which the doctor was treating. Occasionally the family can prevail on the doctor not to refer to the coroner, or the doctor can speak to the coroner to try to avoid a post-mortem if the cause of death is not really in question. If in doubt, the coroner will always proceed with a post-mortem.

A post-mortem is an external and internal examination of the person’s body and is needed to establish the cause of death. If after making all necessary enquiries, and the cause of death is established as natural causes, then the coroner will not request a no post-mortem. In this case, and if the person is to be buried, the family need to register the death in the normal way. In the case of cremation, the coroner will inform the Registrar, which then allows the funeral to proceed; however, in this case, the family will need to visit the registrar to get death certificates

This is called if circumstances surrounding the death require some further investigation – this could be due to concern over nursing or medical care, alcohol or drug use while in care, the death being sudden and unexplained, chance of suspected foul play, or possibly to ‘learn the lessons’ for future such cases.
 

If called, it is immediately adjourned to allow for the facts to be gathered and need not delay the funeral. If this happens, an interim death certificate is produced and act as a normal death certificate until after the inquest is finalised.

When someone passes away at home, or in a nursing home, the first thing to do is to contact the doctor’s surgery that they were registered with. Someone will then come out and will be able to confirm that death has occurred. If death occurs outside of normal surgery hours, then an “on call doctor” will take the place of the regular GP.

​

When the Doctor, or qualified person, has verified the death you will be advised to contact your chosen Funeral Director. Should you wish for us to be your chosen Funeral Director, we will ask a few questions about the person who has passed away and yourself as the caller. Our aim will then be to arrive within one hour to bring them into our care

A death can only be registered once the GP and Medical Examiner are in agreement on the cause of death. The Medical Examiner will then issue the paperwork to the registry office for the death to be registered. 

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You should register the death within 5 days of their passing. This should be done within the county the death happened. 

For deaths in James Cook or North Tees Hospital, the bereavement team will contact you to arrange the registration.

For deaths on Redcar and Cleveland please call 01642 444440 and Middlesbrough, please call 01642 729004.

A relative should register the death.

If a relative cannot register the death, you can do it if you:

• were there at the time of death

• are an administrator from the hospital (if the person died in hospital)

• oversee making funeral arrangements