Doctors wary about certifying home deaths

Doctors wary about certifying home deaths

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

Chennai:19.04.2021

Issuing death certificates during the pandemic is becoming a major issue in the city. On April 16, when a woman at a housing complex on Santhome High Road expired, no doctor including from private hospitals was ready to certify the death. Even calls to 108 proved futile. A day later, when a senior citizen died in KK Nagar, it took the family about the hours and calls to almost five hospitals to get the death certified.

The corporation says a doctor who can come to a conclusion about a patient after his/ her clinical history is known or established by records/interrogation can issue certificate. Otherwise, the body has to be sent to a hospital for a postmortem. But, with burial grounds and crematoriums requiring a doctor’s certificate and the white coats hesitant, residents are forced to run from pillar to post.

Gayathri*, a resident of the housing complex on Santhome High Road, told TOI there were more than 10 doctors in the complex and all refused. “It was a 52-year-old breast cancer patient who died of cancer. Even the doctors of the private hospital where she was admitted for a few days last week refused to come home to certify. And since only her 80-year old mother was with her, she couldn’t take the body to a hospital,” she said and called for figuring out a process so that families don’t go through hassle.

At KK Nagar, a neighbour of the deceased, said influence was used to get a private hospital doctor to the home to certify the death.

V Santhanam, a social activist, suggested that when a person dies at home, the death can be declared by a corporation official based on written statement from witnesses such as family members and neighbours. Corporation health officer M Jagadeesan said no doctor was stopped from declaring deaths.