Latest news with #deathcertificate
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
‘My mother died from a heart attack, but Aviva won't pay her £60k life insurance'
Dear Telegraph Money, My mother died recently at the age of 70 from a heart attack. We didn't know she was ill, so it was very sudden. Because of how she died, we were given a provisional death certificate, while the coroners carried out more checks. This proves that she had died, and we were told that this should be enough to take care of her financial administration. But Aviva told us that they needed to know exactly how she died in order to pay out her life insurance policies. She had two life insurance policies – one just for her valued at about £10,000, and a joint one with my dad for approximately £50,000. But given that the policies promise to pay out on death – and my mother has definitely died – why are Aviva refusing to pay? The money was supposed to help cover the funeral costs, but if they won't pay until a full death certificate is issued, we could be waiting for three months. Can you help me convince them to pay out for my mother's death? – Miss M Dear Miss M, I am sorry to hear about your mother. It's an incredibly stressful time for your family and it seems that, despite having official documentation, Aviva has made this worse for you. Its terms state that on policies taken out recently, as your mother's was, the insurer must check for cause of death. Aviva contacted the coroner to verify that all was as it should be, and that there were no suspicious circumstances in play. One reason that insurers could refuse to pay out would be if your mother had not disclosed health problems which she knew about when she took out the policy. But you told me that this was not the case, and that none of your family – including your mother – had known about her condition. Aviva admitted that there had been delays on their part in getting all of the information they needed from the coroners, which they received on July 7. On July 10, after The Telegraph got in touch, they confirmed with your father that the policies would be paid out as soon as possible. The insurer also offered £250 in compensation for its role in the delayed payment. Your father accepted this, and was pleased to be able to refocus his efforts on your mother's upcoming funeral. An Aviva spokesman said: 'We are very sorry to hear about our customer's passing and apologise for the distress caused to her husband and family over the delay in paying out her life insurance policies. We appreciate this must be a difficult time. 'We always look to settle customer claims as quickly as possible and our team followed normal procedure to request a full death certificate and to then get further information from the coroner when this wasn't available. 'We recognise that delays by us in requesting and processing this information has caused additional worry. We have now accepted the claim and by way of apology for the trouble and upset caused we have offered £250 compensation.' The company added: 'We are looking at how we can make improvements so that payments can be made as quickly as possible in future.'
BBC News
6 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Grieving families face death certificate delays 'for weeks'
Some grieving families in the south-west of England are having to wait several weeks to get a death certificate after a loved one has died. The delay has been blamed on a new system for registering deaths which means doctors can no longer issue certificates independently. The National Association of Funeral Directors said it could result in considerable delays of up to four weeks or more. The government said it understood that such circumstances was "incredibly difficult time for any family", and the certification process was being enhanced to "enhance patient safety and offer clarity to grieving families". The new process was introduced across England and Wales last September, partly in response the Harold Shipman murders. It now requires a medical examiner to review each cause of death certificate completed by a doctor, and contact relatives to see if they have any questions or concerns before it is signed managing director of funeral directors Walter C Parson, John Ware, told the BBC: "I would say four, five years ago we would be advising families it would take seven to 10 for a funeral to be arranged from the point of death. "We're probably looking at between three to four weeks on average, I would say. "It has big implications for the bereaved family. Obviously closure is important for them and the funeral is a big part of the grieving process. "Delaying that by any longer than it needs to be is becoming a big problem for families. "We had a case recently where it was just over six weeks since somebody passed away, and my colleagues have been chasing up the coroner's office and the medical examiner to try and get the relevant paperwork that we need for that funeral to take place." 'Open communication' While Devon is still experiencing delays, the situation has improved in Cornwall where deaths can be registered at any register office in the county. In Devon, deaths have to be registered at the office in the area they occurred; Plymouth, Torbay or Exeter, for example. The president of the Association of Funeral Directors in Cornwall, Ayesha Slader, said: "We're very lucky. We've got an open communication with the medical examiners. If we have any issues, we can call them and make sure we have things in place. "If you have somewhere where the population is quite high and you've got a higher death rate, actually having more than one registration office for that area would be helpful, and I think that would really work to ease the pressures of the delays we're seeing." In a statement, the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We understand that dealing with the death of a loved one is an incredibly difficult time for any family. That's why we've improved the death certification process to enhance patient safety and offer clarity to grieving families. "The government expects deaths to be registered quickly and efficiently, and we're working with the NHS, faith groups, and the funeral sector to drive improvements and reduce delays where they exist."John Ware said: "I think it's important to reassure people that they don't have to wait for the death certificate to be issued before they can start making funeral arrangements."We would really encourage people to make contact with their chosen funeral director as soon as possible after someone has passed away so that they can start planning."
BBC News
7 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Castle Hill: 'Hospital gave us two death certificates for dad to cover up their mistake'
The family of a man who was issued with two death certificates after he died following a heart procedure says the hospital covered up what happened to Holmes died at Castle Hill Hospital, near Hull, which the BBC last month revealed was at the centre of a police investigation into several deaths. The hospital revised its statement of cause of death to remove reference to the operation. His daughter Lisa Jones said she believes medics had done so "to cover up what really happened".The NHS trust that runs the hospital said it could not comment on individual cases, but added "it is not uncommon for a death certificate to be amended following a discussion with the coroner's officer". There were 11 deaths at Castle Hill following TAVI procedures between 2019 and 2023, including Mr Holmes. The BBC understands a further six people have died there since last July after undergoing the hospital's mortality rate is above the national instead of open-heart surgery, a TAVI – or Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implant – involves inserting a new valve via a plastic tube through a blood vessel, often in the groin. The tube guides the new valve to the heart and replaces the damaged procedure, which typically lasts between one and two hours, is usually carried out under local anaesthetic and is mainly performed on older patients. Last month, the BBC disclosed Humberside Police were investigating the TAVI service at Castle Hill amid evidence that patients had died following medical complications which had been kept from their Holmes, an army veteran, went to Castle Hill in 2019 to undergo a TAVI."He thought it would make a new man of him," his wife Susan, 74, told the BBC. However, the procedure went wrong."They told us that the TAVI had got stuck, and then my husband ended up going into theatre and having a heart bypass. Then he haemorrhaged, and he ended up going back into theatre again. He was fighting for his life," she was a fight the 73-year-old unfortunately lost, and he died several days later."As far as we knew, they had done everything right, and it was just one of those things," Mrs Holmes like the other families the BBC has spoken to in recent weeks about the hospital's TAVI service at Castle Hill, the Holmes' understanding of what happened was not accurate as the hospital had chosen not to disclose the details to them. The BBC has seen an unpublished Royal College of Physicians (RCP) review, commissioned by the hospital, into the 11 TAVI deaths. It is excoriating about the care Mr Holmes review graded his treatment plan and implementation as very poor care - the lowest grading - with all other phases of care rated as reads: "Poor clinical decision making occurred at every stage of the patient's pathway, the incorrect positioning of the TAVI that might have been avoided with better planning and the death certification failed to reflect accurately the factors that contributed to the patient's death."Instead of the TAVI getting stuck, as the family had been told, the review reveals it was inaccurately placed too high up. When the medics released the valve, it moved into the aorta, a blood vessel in the heart. Unsuccessful attempts were made to move the valve before it was decided to undertake emergency cardiac surgery, including the complete removal of the TAVI."Shocking, absolutely shocking," Mrs Holmes said, sitting in her garden in Hull, alongside her two daughters. "The hospital never told us any of this.""They've just covered everything up – they've not told us anything whatsoever," added Ms Jones, 48. After Mr Holmes died, the family went to register his death with the death certificate the hospital provided. However, there was a problem at the registry office – the family aren't clear what it was – and they were told they had to go back to Castle Hill. They were then issued with a second death certificate, which said the primary cause of his death was pneumonia and severe aortic stenosis, a blocked heart reviewers from the RCP saw the original death certificate, which said Mr Homes died of pneumonia and a failed review team did not consider the second death certificate, which did not mention the TAVI, "to have been an accurate description of the causes of this patient's death". There was no evidence of referral to the coroner, it Jones said the family did not spot the death certificates had changed until the BBC showed them the review."When it first happened, you can't think about it because you're grieving, so we just thought they'd done something wrong with the death certificate," she said. "[But] they've took it back because they knew what happened. " She accused the hospital of using the second one "to cover up what had really happened to my dad"."It's very upsetting to find out what's been going on," adds her sister, Marie Holmes, 52. "I've always known at the back of my mind that something wasn't right."The trust that runs Castle Hill hospital, Humber Health Partnership, said that while it would not comment on an individual case "it is not uncommon for a death certificate to be amended following a discussion with the coroner's officer".Following the BBC story last month, seven families have instructed a law firm, Hudgell Solicitors, to act on their firm said its first task was to understand what happened to each family, including whether inquests were held or needed to be re-opened."The hospital are saying lessons have been learned," Neil Hudgell said. "Well you've not disclosed the Royal College report, can you mark your own homework? How do we know you've learned your lessons?"Board papers published last month show that the hospital is dealing with "a cluster of further deaths" in the TAVI service. The BBC understands this refers to six deaths of patients who had undergone a TAVI procedure between July 2024 and March provided by the trust show its mortality rate for the whole of 2024 and the first six months of 2025 was 2.2%; the latest available UK-wide mortality figure is 1.3%. The NHS trust said "mortality data for any procedure at a local level varies constantly and can fluctuate".Both the Care Quality Commission and NHS England were aware of problems with the TAVI service at Castle CQC said "concerns about the TAVI service were known to us", while the trust has been the subject of enhanced surveillance by NHS what they had done to ensure families were informed of the problems, neither organisation provided any England said it "couldn't comment due to the police investigation", while the CQC said they had rated surgery at Castle Hill as inadequate for safety in 2022 "due to the significant patient safety concerns".
