Quick cremation

[LittleEsme]

I'm sorry if this question is insensitive.

If someone dies from covid and the family are isolating because of contact/contagion, can the hospital cremate them without the family being there?!

It doesn't sound right to me.

Bump

I don't think hospitals cremate people?
You can have a direct cremation where the body is taken to the crematorium and cremated outside of normal hours, with no one watching (the crem people still say a few words and do it respectfully) and then ashes can be collected at a later date.
We nearly did this for DM but decided to have a short service in the end.

If someone dies without family or friends to take care of things I believe a similar thing is organised by the council.

A hospital wouldn’t arrange a cremation, that would be left for family members to liaise with funeral directors/ crematorium. If there are no family then it is arranged by the council. Are you saying no one was at the funeral at all? No friends or family members? If it was arranged and some members were unable to attend due to being ill then it could be rearranged or go ahead without them I suppose.
As pp has said, a direct cremation is when the deceased is cremated with no service -it makes it a lot cheaper but that is arranged by the family. The council always do a service for people with no family, they don’t just do direct cremation.

www.purecremation.co.uk/blog/what-is-direct-cremation

Thanks both.

I think I'm being fed a pack of lies so I can't be too detailed.

Allegedly, the deceased has been released by the hospital into the care of the undertakers who are making plans to cremate the body without the families input. The immediate family are all still isolating.

I've said that, surely, a death certificate is needed by the undertakers before anything can be done and, if the family are still isolating, the DC hasn't been arranged yet.

I'm not 100% of the procedure to be fair, but the version of events I'm being told doesn't sound truthful.

Are you in the uk?

If so yes death certificate has to be issued to the funeral director. Then they would liaise with next of kin or executor . A funeral can wait ?

But someone has to instruct the funeral director.

Last week my Dad had an "Unattended cremation" which needed a "CREM6" form for the undertaker. You need at least an interim death certificate for the funeral. He died at home, and was taken by a default undertaker to a place of rest, and then the family decided which undertaker to use for the cremation. The cremation was unattended because the family closest to him couldn't be there, and he died of asbestosis and COPD so it would be wrong to risk the same fate of COVID on those who could attend the funeral. We celebrated his life in our own way.

An undertaker wouldn’t do anything without the input of the family because how will he get paid, someone needs to cover the cost which would come from the estate which they could not claim for from the beneficiary unless they had a prior agreement in place

Thank you, everyone for your information. It's really useful.

@BackInNam I'm sorry for your loss

Sorry for your loss.
Reading (possibly between the lines of) your posts, I wonder if the ‘family’ are telling you that they are not involved in the planning of funeral because the deceased person is actually having a ‘Public Health’ funeral ( used to be known as a Paupers funeral). The arrangements are made by the local authority and not the relatives. This is done where the deceased had little or no estate to pay for a funeral, and no relatives will take on the financial responsibility. Just a thought.