How Can We Help? > What To Do When Someone Dies

WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMEONE DIES in a hospital

We know it can be a distressing time and unless you have previous experience, few people know exactly what to do when someone dies. When a death occurs in a hospital, the nurses and doctors will advise you if the death certificate is going to be issued. If for certain reasons it's not issued immediately you can still contact us and we start discussing provisional funeral arrangements.

What do we do? We will offer to come and see you either in the comfort of your home or at our funeral home in Melrose to discuss funeral arrangements.

WHAT If the death occurs at home?

You should contact your GP or palliative care nurse who will verify the death and confirm it is okay for you to contact us.

What do we do? We will firstly arrange to bring your relative back into our care at our funeral home in Melrose, then offer to come back and see you, or you see us, to discuss funeral arrangements.

WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMEONE DIES in a nursing home

The nursing home staff shall contact the deceased's GP and advise them of the death  taking place, either yourself or the staff can then contact us.

What do we do? We will firstly arrange to bring your relative back into our care at our funeral home in Melrose, then offer to come back and see you, or you see us, to discuss funeral arrangements.

If the death has been sudden, unexplained or by accident

The police are contacted if someone dies suddenly or their death is unexplained. They will put together a report which will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal, who will then determine if a post-mortem is required to establish the cause of death. You can still contact us at your earliest convenience and we will liaise with the relative departments for you

We are contactable 24hrs a day, 365 days a year on 01896 822632