"Difficulties obtaining a death certificate"

My father sadly passed away on Saturday and at the time of writing this we have still been unable to obtain a death certificate to allow us to start the process for arranging a funeral. We have called the ward  on numerous occasions and been advised that due my father being moved shortly before his passing, they were finding it difficult to locate the doctor responsible for signing the death certificate.

After two unsuccessful attempts by my mother at gaining information, i then contacted the ward directly and was advised that the junior doctors were still trying to identify the doctor/consultant required and that they had contacted the Combined Assessment Unit for further information as my father had been moved from here. At this point i should point out that my father was at no point in the CAU during his stay and had actually been moved from a different ward that was 5 yards down the hall.

I was informed at this point that they would speak with the doctors in the ward next door , however when i called again i was informed that the doctor required was now off until Wednesday. An e-mail has been sent to the doctor and i await a call from the ward in the morning to advise if there is any other course of action as the certificate cannot be issued until their return.

This has been an extremely traumatic event for my family and was certainly not the outcome we expected when my father was admitted last week. There would appear to be a significant lack of knowledge surrounding his death and evidence that record keeping is unsatisfactory at best, i say this with them having the inability to determine initially where he was moved from and then being unable to identify who was responsible for the completion of the death certificate (or even the cause of death).

The additional stress, upset and overall distress this has caused is, i am sure you will agree, unacceptable. At a time where we should be able to start the grieving process, we are unable to do so due to poor communication and a failure within the hospital to complete necessary paperwork. We are now faced with additions to the already lengthy wait for a funeral and with employment commitments, a real concern that this will be out with most of our entitled leave for the passing of our father. I am not saying for a minute that we would not be able to attend but this will lead to extended time off and other services being affected.

At this very emotional and difficult time, i think it is fair to say that we expected more from professionals and certainly did not expect that they would add to the trauma we are already facing.