'Death certificate delay put our grief on hold'
Tracey DavisonA woman has said a delay in registering her mother's death caused her grieving family more pain.
Tracey Davison's mother Mary Curtis, from Sunderland, died at Sunderland Royal Hospital on 9 April and she said she only received her mother's death certificate, which is required for funeral proceedings, two weeks later on 23 April.
She said the delays had caused both her and her family to put their grief on hold. "My dad just broke down," she said.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, which hosts the medical examiner service, said it had faced a recent backlog following the bank holiday and apologised for the delay some families had faced.
Davison said her mother, who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in January, died suddenly in April.
"It was quicker than expected," she said.
She said she had spent two weeks chasing the hospital for the document until she received it.
"There's been no courtesy calls, I've had to do all the chasing myself," she said, adding she felt like she had been neglected.
"It was just really painful and felt unfair," she said. "It just extends the grieving process."
'Unforseen demand'
It follows multiple families facing delays in receiving death certificates from the trust last year after a change in the law about how the documents were issued.
These changes were made partly in response to the murder of patients under GP Harold Shipman.
The trust said since then it had added more medical examiners and admin support and the latest latest delays were largely due to the "unforeseen demand" seen during the Easter bank holidays.
The trust's executive medical director Dr Shaz Wahid said: "We appreciate that families will undoubtedly find this extended period of time upsetting and we apologise for that.
"We must, however, follow this process properly."
