Death certificate, coroners, and inquests

I'm so sorry for your loss OP.

If you feel up to it, what's the problem with the hospital (I think you used the term "escape")?

One possibility is to have a memorial event now, while the relatives are here, and a small (perhaps streamed on the internet?) funeral later on, when that becomes possible.

Over a third of deaths afe referred to thr coroner, most dont require a PM. As the cause of desth of your father is known, i dont see why there would need to be one.

I’m so sorry. The coroner’s office is the one to ring. I got an interim certificate very quickly after dh’s sudden death. Get several copies.

There was a very long wait until the funeral but I’ll be honest - I actually could have got it done a couple of weeks earlier but I was not ready to bury my husband so I picked a later date. I think it could have been done in 3 weeks.

There is nothing anyone can do to speed up the Coroner. But, as pp said, there will be other things to deal with and just spending time together will be a comfort.

Sorry for your loss. My experience of losing a parent in hospital but unexplained was that the post-mortem took a couple of weeks. Once the coroner had the PM report they told us we could book the funeral, pending issuing the death certificate. The funeral director was experienced enough to leave a bit of time in case anything changed and we only told people the date and time about a week in advance. In all from death to funeral was just under 1 month. We are still dealing with the hospital complaint process and potential inquest almost 2 years later.

ETA it won’t speed anything up but if your DH/siblings are executors he/they will be able to deal with all the admin stuff. There’s a lot of it and it can help some people to feel active in those first few weeks.

You shoukd be able to get an interim death certificate. You will not be able to arrange a funeral until tge body is released and this could be sometime (weeks) if an autopsy is required.

Your dh may find this info useful.

Loads of information here.
https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death

This is ( I think ) only available for your DHs mum but you don't mention her so I'm not sure if she is still in the picture. If not it may be worth looking into to see if your dh can claim it.
https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-support-payment

This service is not available in all areas ( awkward bloody councils ) but is very good if your dh can make use of it
https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

Get your DH to get plenty of copies of both the interim and full death certificate from the outset it's much easier ( and cheaper ) than trying to get them later . I think I got 10 of each .
Several years after my DH had died I need one to prove it wasn't him involved in a pub fight over 100 miles from where we live 🤨.

Sorry for you and dhs going through this, its a difficult and stressful time.

My dh died at home very unexpected so the police were ( briefly) involved.

The inquest took about 6/7 weeks .
I think iv got a interim death certificate within about 3 weeks ( it felt like a life time waiting for it )
I would get your DH to focus on the admin side of things for now .
Depending on the bank your dfi used but most are very good at helping you go through things that need / can be cancelled or delayed.
My dh ( and me ) used the RBS and they were fantastic

Unless dhs family have plenty of time / money I wouldn't ask them to travel yet there could be a long wait .
There are a lot of other stressful things going on in your life which won't help.
Can you speak to your DD and explain you font need to know the ins and outs of her life just to talk to you about her uni plans.
Can you get your exam deferred for a month or so.

I will post a few links in a minute that may help.

We had to wait for the death certificate for Dm - it had to go via the coroner - since although she was 97 and had advanced dementia, she had died in her care home at the weekend, when she couldn’t be seen very soon beforehand by her usual GP, only by a locum.

In the circs it did seem utterly daft to me, but such is the fallout from the Harold Shipman business.
In the event it didn’t really matter. Since the entire family was going to be away for at least a week for a wedding,the funeral would have been delayed anyway. TBH I was just so thankful that she hadn’t died while we were all away, so one of us had been with her all the time for the previous 36 or so hours - not that she was at all aware, as far as we could see,

Direct DH to talk to a local funeral director.

They’ll be familiar with time frames in the area. Round us, you’re talking a minimum 3 week lead time from death to funeral.

You can, but they can’t do anything until the Death Cert is issued.

Getting the death certificate has become a lengthy process with new legislation. My DF died on April 17th this year and the funeral was May 20th. He is not going to able to organise a funeral for a while yet.

Sorry it’s a difficult time for you all.

Just bear in mind (and warn your DH) that even when you have the death certificate a funeral may be at least 3-4 weeks later.

My FIL died earlier this year, an expected death, no PM and no inquiry and it was still 4 weeks between his death and his funeral.

As far as organising, that’s down to personal preference - simple option and most popular (I organise them professionally) is a crem service with either your parish vicar or an independent celebrant followed by a reception at the location of your choosing. Ask the key people for dates but limit them otherwise you’ll never find a perfect one

It took 6 days to get my father’s death certificate signed when he died in hospital of an expected illness. I found that it all moves very slowly.
You can contact a funeral home now, without the certificate. We contacted one while my DF was still alive but had a short prognosis.

It can take a few days even without any issues. Mil’s did require “questions” and the family was asked if we wanted a pm but because she was over 85 with known medical conditions (though hadn’t seen a dr in 6 weeks) we were able to waive it, they said if she were under 80 that wouldn’t have been an option. Dc took over a week to get, 10/11 days think it was but the funeral was arranged provisionally for 4 weeks after her death in the meantime

So sorry , what a shock for the family.
Also sorry to say that even without the complications, arranging a funeral can take a long time these days. It might not be possible to make it happen while visiting relatives are still here.

Sadly having experienced this myself, the PM should be done within the week. You’ll get an interim death certificate while you wait for the results of the PM.
You will be able to start planning the funeral once he is back with the funeral directors.

I think we buried my father 3 weeks after he died. The death certificate was handed over about 8 weeks later.

not going to lie it was a stressful time.

So sorry for your loss OP. I used to be a funeral arranger. In my experience the funerals were only slightly more delayed in these situations. Once the PM has been conducted, and the coroner has enough evidence to establish a cause of death, they will issue a certificate to the funeral director that allows the funeral to proceed. This is not the actual death certificate, that will come later.

Your DH is able to visit his chosen funeral director and begin making plans. The only thing that can't be set in stone yet is the date, but I used to book something several weeks ahead and then reassess nearer the date if the coroners note hadn't arrived. Dates at crematoriums or graveyards can be changed, you just have to be careful to not have anything printed with a date eg, order of service, until your date is confirmed.

As others have said, the medical certificate can take a while even if straightforward. Ours for FIL took about a week. We were initially confused and concerned by the information you still come across online, which says you must register the death within a couple of days (which you need the medical certificate for) but as we discovered, this time limit no longer applies, and it can take considerably longer.

Agree with the advice to appoint a good funeral director ASAP. Ours were wonderful - they knew everyone, and talked us through exactly what would happen around the hospital admin and release of the body etc, and handled a lot of this themselves.

In our case, it was about six weeks until the funeral, as some family members were away, and the planning did take some time. It was helpful to have that time to plan and think, in retrospect, though of course that's hard if you've got family who are only available for a short time.

I'm so sorry you and DH are going through this.

The coroner's officer will keep you informed. You may be allowed to have a funeral with an interim death certificate. You can certainly plan the kind of funeral you would like, engage a funeral director and so on. You won't be able to set a date until the coroner's officer contacts you. (This is if you are in England).
In our case it was 4 weeks before we could have a funeral. There was an inquest and a final death certificate 2 months after that. It depends on the initial investigation.
I am sorry for your loss. It is a difficult time.

My DH died very unexpectedly in hospital following a procedure. The death had to go through the coroner. It took three weeks before they issued the death certificate. You just have to be patient.