Any police officers around to answer a question on procedure please? (Warning: Concerns a death)

[GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]

Could anyone tell me what should happen in this situation?

A person becomes ill, an ambulance is called and it’s too late, they can’t save them. Paramedics call the police and a sergeant attends, paramedics leave.

What should happen next?

Paramedic here. In my area if we go to a death at home, we recognise life extinct not certify, if the death is unexpected but there are no obvious suspicious circumstances we call the police, they check records for any possible call outs etc to the address. If they are happy we then check that family present are able and willing to remain with the deceased and organise an undertaker of their choice to come and collect the body. We complete paperwork and contact Gp or out of hours Gp and leave copies of paperwork to be handed to the undertaker. We then leave deceased with family. If family aren’t able or refuse then police attend and organise retrieval by the undertakers. If we suspect suspicious circumstances then we will insist on police attendance. This is a recent change, police used to attend all at home deaths that were unexpected ie not immediately expected by a doctor but due to staff shortages they don’t now.

I think the rule is that if a person who dies has not been seen by a GP within a fortnight then it's investigated as an unexpected death.

So a patient who is on an end of life/paliative pathway should always have a GP visit regularly. I think this is to ensure that they do not suffer unnecessarily.

If it's an unexplained death then it needs to be investigated further too. Everything you said makes sense.

The flatmate may have wanted some time with the person to say goodbye?

Side note: depending on whether the person made the decision to be buried or cremated also affects the death certificate too.

I just feel uneasy about him being left alone there, what if he was disrespectful?

Why would it even cross your mind that the flat mate would be disrespectful? Is there some sort of history here?