Contents
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the families of the deceased have more and more often found it extremely difficult to find a person who would confirm the death and prepare an appropriate document.
- Medical services are overloaded with work, and the formalities related to the death of citizens turned out to be another weak point in the system
- The problem is growing as more and more people die from the coronavirus. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, 11 people have died due to COVID-451
- Family doctors do not want to deal with it: they are afraid of infection, they justify themselves with a lack of time. The regulations in force do not make it clear whether they are obliged to do so
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Coroners needed immediately
A coroner is a person entitled to certify deaths. In Poland, this profession was officially introduced in 2002 and it is a forensic doctor whose task is also to assess whether the cause of death was natural or not and to issue a death certificate.
The function of a coroner was introduced in Poland in 2002, inter alia, to prevent corruption among funeral companies and the phenomenon of trafficking in corpses. The first coroners were appointed in Łódź, where they were on duty by telephone and were in constant contact with the ambulance service.
In practice, however, this function has not spread to a greater extent, and GPs or night and holiday health care practitioners are usually sent to certify deaths. Coroners worked only in some municipalities.
That is why many experts point out that in time of a pandemic, professionally prepared coroners, equipped with personal protective equipment, are needed immediately.
Since the spring, medical services have been overloaded with work, and the formalities related to the death of citizens have proved to be another weak point in the system.
The problem is growing as more and more people die from the coronavirus. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, 11 people have died due to COVID-451. That’s 19 percent more deaths than at the same time last year.
Family doctors do not want to confirm the deaths?
The coroner’s profession has become risky today due to the need to certify the deaths of people quarantined and infected with SARS-CoV-2. This is the case where the death happened at home or anywhere else outside the hospital.
Until now, either family doctors, as well as night and holiday doctors were delegated to determine the deaths of people who died at home or outside the hospital.
The situation has changed and since the beginning of the pandemic, the families of the deceased have more and more often found it extremely difficult to find a person who would confirm the death and prepare an appropriate document.
It turns out that family doctors do not want to deal with this. Mainly because they are afraid of contracting the coronavirus. They also explain themselves by the lack of time, and the regulations in force do not make it clear whether they are obliged to do so.
Ambulance, hospice, hospital. Or maybe the police?
People are confused, so they call an ambulance to their relatives who have died. When they hear a refusal, they seek help elsewhere.
Just like the reader of the portal swidnica24.pl, whose father died at home. In a letter to the editor, she wrote that she was refused a declaration of death by the ambulance service, hospice and general practitioner.
«I am making a call directly to the hospital. > There is no coroner. We do not deal with such matters <. I ask, losing my nerves:> Should I call television? <. The only answer I received from an employee:> You can even call the minister <. And the hospital employee hung up. "
It was only from the police that Świdniczanka learned that the poviat starosty could help. And only it sent a doctor to declare death.
«What if the poviat starosty was already after office hours and no one would give a man any help? Why in such basic matters as the death of a family member, nobody knows anything and wants to help? What is this bureaucracy? » The desperate woman asked in the letter.
We described another dramatic story on Onet in September, when after the death of a 93-year-old woman infected with coronavirus, no one wanted to come either – to confirm the death or to collect the body.
For several hours her granddaughter called funeral homes, which offered the arrival of a licensed doctor. But to no avail. The family had to stay with the body of the deceased for many hours, and it was only after more than five hours that the doctor from the night clinic arrived. He was “fed up with the lack of unclear procedures”.
- Read more: Nobody wanted to declare him dead
Coroners are appointed by the voivode
It is precisely such situations that indicate that the coroner institution seems to be indispensable in Poland. At the beginning of April, the Sejm established the regulation of the law on “special support instruments in connection with the spread of SARS-CoV-2”.
They belong to the so-called anti-crisis shield and indicate that the voivodes are to appoint coroners to determine the deaths of people suspected of coronavirus infection outside the hospital. They will also be responsible for keeping a list of people practicing this profession and updating these data.
For example, in Mazowieckie Voivodeship there are currently six people working in this profession. There were no problems with finding them: “in the fall, the Health Department of the Mazowieckie Voivodship Office in Warsaw received a dozen or so questions from doctors with questions such as about the terms of the contract »- informs the voivode’s press office. If the family wants to contact them, it calls the Provincial Crisis Management Center.
There are seven coroners in the Lublin region, doctors include from Łuków, Puławy, Biała Podlaska and Lublin. Contact to them is available on the voivode’s website.
The West Pomeranian voivode appointed two coroners, “this will avoid situations in which nobody wanted to take care of the deceased due to fear of infection” – informs the official on the website.
Where to find a coroner?
The coroner is entitled to remuneration in the amount of PLN 738 for each confirmation of death and for the preparation of a death certificate. In addition, he receives PLN 49 per night for “readiness” and PLN 250 lump sum for the purchase of personal protective equipment. The doctor may also count on the reimbursement of travel expenses to the deceased person.
People who want to report a death due to coronavirus at home in a family subject to isolation or quarantine will be able to do so at 112 or 999. Then the emergency number dispatcher, after verifying the report, will send the coroner’s doctor to the address of the coroner’s report.
This may interest you:
- Record of deaths. Where did so many victims come from?
- A Polish doctor tells what it is like to work in Germany. How much do they earn? What is their pension?
- Doctor: We find it shocking how quickly we are losing COVID-19 patients
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