Hi,
I was wondering if there are any GPs or surgery staff who might be able to advise me/point me in the right direction, please?
Are there any official guidelines or rules about how long it is acceptable for a GP to respond to the coroner with regards to an unexpected death?
My father died unexpectedly on the 29/6. He was alone when he died, we had nipped to the supermarket. He was not ill etc and had been absolutely fine in the days/hours preceding. It was a complete shock to the whole family and we’re absolutely broken and are struggling to come to terms with it.
The ambulance and then police attended. Because it was an unexpected death the coroner was involved. We spoke to them on the Monday morning and they were as kind and helpful as they could be. They said they had emailed his GP first thing regarding their last interactions and whether the GP would be happy to declare the death natural and the cause.
My father had had a stent fitted in 2016 when routine testing before knee surgery found a blockage. He had been under consultant care, just keeping an eye on him, until 2023 when he was discharged with an annual check up inc ECG at the local hospital. He had had his annual ECG 16 days before his death. He was told all was well.
We had therefore anticipated that it was likely there would need to be a post-mortem, however this was in the hands of the GP.
The coroner said that the GP would get back to them within 24hrs of the request, occasionally 48 hours.
However, despite receiving the request at 10am on Monday, the GP had still not responded to the GP by Thursday lunchtime (we had been keeping in touch with the coroner who was very understanding).
The GP surgery want all inquiries to be made electronically, on their questionnaire system with tick boxes (none of which fitted with our issue). It was very difficult to get hold of an actual person to talk to, and I was on hold for almost an hour.
When I finally did get through to reception the individual was incredibly rude, both in their tone and what they actually said, they outright accused the coroners of lying, telling me that they had not received anything from them. When I said I had been in contact with the coroner every day and they told me they had sent it on Monday, they told me ‘the coroner is lying’. This was nonsense, as I had asked the coroner to forward me the original and then subsequent chasing up request. I had both in front of me- clearing showing it had been sent.
It was only when we turned up in person at the surgery (by this point it was gone 2pm on Thursday), and refused to leave the waiting area until it was sorted, that they magically found the emailed request. (We had brought printed out hard copies too, just incase they claimed it had gone to the wrong email address, which they did not).
Evidently, they had had the request since it was sent on Monday morning. By the time they had got the GP to look at it, it was after 4pm Thursday, by which point the coroners office was closed.
It meant that the autopsy was not able to be scheduled until 15/7. Obviously this has been an absolutely awful time for us and the attitude of the staff at the surgery was horrific and the delay dragged out the limbo for far longer than was necessary.
I wish to make a formal complaint about their complete incompetence and lack of care or compassion.
Having spoken to other family members and friends who are GPs, they have all said such requests are dealt with urgently, almost always on the same day. They understand the significance for the families waiting for news.
However, I cannot see any official guidelines or rules regarding how long GPs have to respond to requests.
Does anyone know if such things exist?
Thank you