Bereavement Information - Northfield Medical Centre

This page is for patients and relatives who have suffered bereavement or experiencing caring for someone who is approaching end of life. I have taken links from various websites in order to sign post to the most appropriate services depending on your needs.

Bereavement Support

Cruse Bereavement services for emotional support- The Cruse Bereavement care freephone national helpline is staffed by trained bereavement volunteers, who offer emotional support to anyone affected by bereavement.

https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/popular-now/directories/information-and-support-directory/cruse-bereavement-services

Access them directly below

Get support

Helpline for Leicestershire: 0116 288 4119

National Helpline: 0808 808 1677

Further Bereavement support– Please visit the website below to find a list of charities and organisations that may be able to provide you with support during your bereavement.

https://coroners.leicester.gov.uk/bereavement-support/

Website to help support patients and families specific to Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland

Dying Matters Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland | HOME (dyingmattersleicestershireandrutland.com)

Our role as a practice

The surgery provides care for patients who are approaching end of life by

Recognising that a deterioration in their health may be due to approaching end of life
Recognising someone deteriorating in such a way that death may happen.
We also work closely with the community palliative care team and nurses for patients who have complex care needs.
We try to help our patients by controlling the symptoms they may be experiencing if they are approaching end of life. This is usually done by some medications that will be prescribed and these are kept at the home address. If ever these are needed, district nurses can come out to administer these medicines through a small gentle injection under the skin.
If they are requiring regular medicines to be administered, then we review these patients for a possibility of a syringe driver which means that the medication is put through a drip and is delivered over 24 hours to keep the patient comfortable.
Once a person has died, a practitioner needs to confirm the death.
A Medical Cause of Death Certificate (MCCD) needs to be issued by the doctor who attended to the patient in the last illness. NEW REGULATIONS as from April 2023 – A Medical Examiner report is needed prior to doing a MCCD.
If this is not possible then the coroner has to be informed and the MCCD can be issued once the coroner has confirmed we can do this.
We can refer to social prescribers.

Social Prescribing

a way for practices to refer patients with social, emotional or practical needs to a wide range of non-clinical services for advice and support.
Not suitable for those in need of urgent support, adult social care or safeguarding.
Our social prescribers can be contacted via a referral from any member of the practice including administration and reception staff.

THEY PROVIDE:

Organised support/advice services, Informal support groups, community groups and activities, befriending by phone or in person.
Please speak to a member of the team in the practice for further information and referral.

New Medical Examiner Regulation (April 2023)

every out of hospital death needs to be reported to the Medical Examiner (ME) unless being reported to the coroner directly.
ME have their own protocols and procedures to follow.
Once ME report has been done the MCCD can be given for registration of death (ME report)

Expected Death- what to do?

In Hours (8am – 6.30pm)

Call the practice to inform reception.

Out of hours (6.30pm – 8am)

Call 111 and inform them that this is an expected death and arrangements will be made to certify the death.

You may find it useful to check the information available on the LLR Medical committee website (follow the link below) to work out how we provide medical cause of death certificates:

https://www.llrlmc.co.uk/completionofmedicalcertificatesofcauseofdeathmccdandverificationofdeathvod

Unexpected death- out of hospital

All out of hospital deaths that are not expected have to be reported to the coroner.
You may find this link useful: https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/when-a-death-is-reported-to-a-coroner
In some circumstances, Police may need to informed and/or involved.
https://www.leics.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/leicestershire/policies/investigation-of-deaths-policy-oct-21.pdf

Questions you may have

1.Why can’t my relative’s death certificate be issued right away?

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/when-a-death-is-reported-to-a-coroner
Visit the page for ‘Our role as a practice’; there are certain regulatory requirements such as referring every death to the medical examiner before we get given the green light to write the death certificate.

2. My relative has been taken into hospital and death occurred there, what should I do?

In hospital deaths are processed by the hospital doctors and you should contact the treating team for more information. The hospital team looking after your relative should be providing the death certificate to register the death.

3. Where can I find information about the coroner’s office for Leicester?