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Elderly woman FORCED to show husband's dead body on video call to certify his death as doctor refused to visit

A friend of the elderly woman said they were told that doctors 'don’t come out anymore' to certify deaths, and that you have to do it yourself on a smartphone
PUBLISHED AUG 29, 2022
The elderly woman lost her husband to cancer in early August 2022 (Eduardo Barrios/Unsplash)
The elderly woman lost her husband to cancer in early August 2022 (Eduardo Barrios/Unsplash)

An elderly widow was forced to certify her husband’s death via a video call after a general practitioner (GP) said they “don’t come out anymore” and asked to "hold the camera to the dead body" of her husband, 80, who died from cancer.

As per DailyMail, the woman lost her husband in early August on a weekday at around 4 pm. When she called the local GP, she was informed that a doctor would “be in touch shortly”. However, when the GP called back, more than one and a half hours later, he said he would not be coming to the house. Moira Evans, a friend of the elderly woman, said that they were told that GPs don’t come out anymore to certify death, that you have to do it yourself on a smartphone. She said, "He then sent a link to a video chat [and said], ‘Hold the camera to the dead body.' My friend at this point said, ‘I can’t, can you do it please, Moira?’, and so I did it.’" She further said, "The procedure of having to do this on video… we were gobsmacked. You just assume when somebody dies in your home that somebody’s going to come out and have a tiny bit of compassion in there."

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Evans narrated how the doctor instructed her to move the camera. "He asked, "Can you hold it a bit lower so I can see his chest?" Less than 60 seconds after the call started, the doctor said, "OK, I’ve seen enough," and informed that a death certificate would be issued," she informed.

As per the report, the details of the woman and the location of her local GP surgery have not been specified. However, Dennis Reed from Silver Voices, which campaigns for older people, said, "This is taking remote healthcare much too far," indicating the online consultations with GPs following the pandemic. He said, "It would have been completely traumatic for someone whose husband had just died to have to help to certify his death. Confirming someone has died is one of the key things a GP has always done and should continue to do, and it is just outrageous this was done on a video call."

An NHS spokesman also said, "Verification of death should be carried out in person by a qualified health professional in a sensitive and compassionate manner."

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