A leading funeral director has hit out at delays in issuing death certificates at Letterkenny General Hospital.
Letterkenny General Hospital
Undertaker Charlie McClafferty said the matter is ‘a very sensitive issue’ but a serious one which must be discussed.
The Churchill-based businessman said it is not for the funeral directors to identify the fault lines or blame any specific part of the hospital system: but the fact that these delays have not been addressed is a matter of very serious concern.
He explained that the normal procedure sees family representatives in urgent contact with their undertakers to make immediate arrangements for the funeral when a relative passes away at the hospital.
Mr McClafferty told the Tirconail Tribune “There is an expectation that within a normal time schedule a wake and funeral can be arranged but undertakers are now facing a process of phone calls due to delays at the hospital and a lack of clarity about when bereaved family can be notified about the arrangements.
“We are being put in a position where some of us have to appeal to hospital sources to have death certification issued as a matter of priority and this is not acceptable.”
It is being alleged that delays in issuing death certification with Letterkenny Hospital may lead to delays in making funeral arrangements and Funeral Directors say their complaints have fallen on deaf ears at the hospital.
It is understood that in one recent incident one of the funeral directors had direct and personal experience of these delays when he had to wait for seven hours for his own mother’s body to be certified as dead before being released for preparation for the wake.
In another instance, it is alleged that one north Donegal family was forced to wait for 11 hours before a death was medically confirmed.
One Funeral Director who prefers not to be named says that the General Hospital procedures are far too dependent on “a doctor on call” being available immediately to certify a death.
That he says is the crux of the matter and as far as he’s concerned after a lifetime in the undertaking business, the delays have become far worse in recent times and he’s calling on the HSE to ensure that a higher degree of urgency is facilitated to allow families to make funeral arrangements without any due delays hindering the process.
However, a spokesman for the Saolta Health group said it is difficult for them to comment on specific cases.
Their press office says that without knowing the details it is difficult to process claims made by funeral directors.
The hospital response said: “In normal circumstances, the attending consultant/team certify the death and the body can be removed right away. The attending medical team will sign the death certificate either immediately or later.”
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