An elderly widow was forced to certify her husband’s death via video call after a GP said they “don’t come out any more”. The Telegraph has the story.
The patient, who was 80 and had been dying from cancer, passed away at home shortly after 4pm on a weekday earlier in August.
His wife, who had been caring for him at home, immediately called her local GP and was told the doctor would “be in touch shortly”.
But when the GP phoned back more than one and a half hours later he said he would not be coming to the house.
Moira Evans, the widow’s friend who was there at the time and has spoken to the Telegraph, said: “He then sent a link to a video chat… [and said] ‘hold the camera to the dead body’.
“My friend at this point said ‘I can’t, can you do it please Moira?’, and so I did it.”
The GP explained “they don’t come out any more to certify death, that you have to do it yourself on a smartphone”, Mrs Evans said.
Temporary measures for completing medical certificates of cause of death during the pandemic were lifted in March 2022.
The current official requirements, set by HM Passport Office [huh?!], state: “Seeing the deceased after death (i.e., viewing the body) will need to be in person and includes verifying the death.”
An NHS spokesman said: “Verification of death should be carried out in person by a qualified health professional in a sensitive and compassionate manner.”
Some patients have struggled to access their GP since the start of the pandemic, with some practices still restricting patients from having face-to-face appointments.
The latest official figures show around 65% of GP appointments were held in person in July, the highest proportion since March 2020 (66%). However, the figure is still well below the pre-pandemic average of around 80%.
Worth reading in full.
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This disgusts me. It should shock and appall the British people.
Anybody who can be shocked hasn’t been paying much attention.
A great many people haven’t been paying attention.
Although it disgusts me I’m sorry to say I’ve now become too desensitised due to chronic exposure of this callous mistreatment and Clown World lunacy to be shocked. I feel that nothing can surprise me anymore. We’re now at a stage where many will have acclimatised to the horrendous state our once civilised societies have been reduced to.
You guys in the UK will be telling your kids all about the good old days when doctors used evidence-based medicine to treat patients because they gave a damn about the outcome or remember when you’d call for an ambulance and it’d come within a few minutes. Just two examples of things I can’t see ever returning if I’m honest.
Sack the firkin Doctor. He / she is no use to man nor beast. All pension rights withdrawn. The evil bastard.
Pots n pans on Thursday evening dudes?
Never did and never will. The treatment received by and elderly relative just before lockdown was so awful that I’ll never trust the NHS again. The relative died. She was going to anyway but she was certainly helped by the medics.
As an ex-GP, albeit in Australia, I can’t get my head around a health system where only 80%, let alone 65% of GP consults are performed in person. I worked in a system where all consultations were done in person, either in one’s consulting rooms, at the patient’s home, or in hospital. GP’s also performed anaesthetics, surgery, obstetrics, and looked after their patients in hospital.
I guess this is progress!
There is an advert on TV of a woman in last stages of labour and the ambulance guy on his mobile being told to turn the baby to facilitate delivery. It seems everything is now being done via a mobile phone, doctors and nurses don’t even have to get out of their beds!
How quaint, od fashioned and inefficient was that face to face thingy.
You must embrace change Dr. G.
Next time I need to fake my death I’ll know how to do it! John and Anne Darwin had to go to so much trouble, didn’t they? But now, committing life insurance fraud (or rather, getting away with it) is just a Zoom away!
Christ Almighty. Other people scare me (present company excepted).
What a cnut… Name and shame please…
It’s P45 time for these people, surely?
The problem we have is these people are far too comfortable in their jobs they think they are indispensable. This needs to change starting with our MPs.
I am so disgusted by this news. The widow should be given help making a formal complaint about the Doctor to the Medical Board and have that surgery closed down. Copy all letters to the MP too.
If people do not understand the nhs has collapsed, this story should make that point extremely clear.
Disgusting.
The story seems too perfect. Has it been confirmed by police and/or responsible journalist?
Just because in “The Telegraph” doesn’t necessarily make it true. I can think of a large number of “news” reports in recent years which turned out to be hoaxes.