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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: DorothyH on Monday 13 July 15 19:56 BST (UK)

Title: how can I make someone respond to my letter
Post by: DorothyH on Monday 13 July 15 19:56 BST (UK)
For years I have been looking for a removed dob 6/10/67/ Hillingdon/Mother removed. I knew that his Mother put him into care because he 'wasn't well' when he just was a few months old and that was the last we heard of him. I know what 'path' his Mother took in life until a few years ago and she appears to have dropped out of sight.  The other week I again looked at records and came across a death record for a removed but it was about by 1 year. I applied for the certificate certificate and it states that he died from Cystic Fibrosis. This brings me onto my question, I have written to the person that registered the death but to date, I have had no reply. The suspense is killing me. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do next.

Moderator comment: names removed
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: Linnet1937 on Monday 13 July 15 20:01 BST (UK)
Unfortunately there's nothing you can do to make someone respond. I found my mums half-family and although I tried to contact them they weren't interested. You just have to cross your fingers that your topic of questioning isn't a sore point and that they'll respond at all..
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: nanny jan on Monday 13 July 15 20:07 BST (UK)

How long ago was the death?  The person could have moved away or died and that is why there has been no response.


Nanny Jan
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: aghadowey on Monday 13 July 15 20:08 BST (UK)
The informant may have been a doctor, hospital employee, etc. and therefore not allowed to give you any further information or they may simply have moved on since the death was registered.
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: ScouseBoy on Monday 13 July 15 20:31 BST (UK)
If I remember correctly,     The certificate usually states the status or Qualification of the Informant.       Such as Son;  Nephew;   husband; Nurse;  Nursing Home manager.      And it will sometimes say for example  "Son, in attendance"

In the case in this thread, can you recall   what it said for Informant, please.
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: ScouseBoy on Monday 13 July 15 20:44 BST (UK)
Are you related to the deceased person?

Have you any legal status  which  would entitle you to have an answer to your valid questions?

Am I right to presume that the "informant"  was either a hospital authority or a Local Authority?     I would suggest that  you write to the Senior Hospital Administrator  or to the County Secretary (Legal Officer)  and ask them if they would kindly  answer some of your questions.
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: groom on Monday 13 July 15 20:52 BST (UK)
Quote
Am I right to presume that the "informant"  was either a hospital authority or a Local Authority?     I would suggest that  you write to the Senior Hospital Administrator  or to the County Secretary (Legal Officer)  and ask them if they would kindly  answer some of your questions.

I very much doubt if they would be allowed to do that unless you were the next of kin. Confidentiality.
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: aghadowey on Monday 13 July 15 21:06 BST (UK)
I very much doubt if they would be allowed to do that unless you were the next of kin. Confidentiality.

As I said in reply #3  ;)
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: ScouseBoy on Monday 13 July 15 21:15 BST (UK)
Yes.  You could be right.    But we don't know what  questions the OP wants to ask.

I am age 65 now,   I  see  that there has been a change over the last twenty years in the way the medical profession  handles "confidentiality"

even now, I think some medical professionals  will  have a different view on confidentiality.

I have many examples  of were confidentiality is used detrimentally to the patients welfare. 
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: ScouseBoy on Monday 13 July 15 21:17 BST (UK)
The informant may have been a doctor, hospital employee, etc. and therefore not allowed to give you any further information or they may simply have moved on since the death was registered.

However, there is no consistency  across  the NHS  on confidentiality issues. In my experience.
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: heywood on Monday 13 July 15 21:23 BST (UK)
Hello,

You say the death is out by one year, it may be a different person which may also explain a reluctance to communicate.
Could you check for obituaries or death announcement in a local paper.
Might there be a will- if the deceased is an adult.

Regards
Heywood
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond
Post by: dawnsh on Monday 13 July 15 22:24 BST (UK)
The person of interest appeared to have died in 2001 and there may be grant of probate and will for this person. You can search here.

https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

A google search also reveals that you have been looking for this person and his mother for sometime, including posts on Ruislip Reunited and the letters page of Get West London which includes her married names and the name of another child.

If I were on the receiving end of a letter written to me in the capacity of informant on a death certificate (either as family member or medical professional) and you are not a family member, I wouldn’t respond.

You should be sending this information to his putative father and get him to write to the informant and apply for a copy of the grant.

With the further passage of time since his death, you should be hesitant in contacting anyone named in the will. Leave it to his birth family.
Title: Re: how can I make someone respond to my letter
Post by: LizzieW on Wednesday 15 July 15 14:57 BST (UK)
Quote
even now, I think some medical professionals  will  have a different view on confidentiality.

I have many examples  of were confidentiality is used detrimentally to the patients welfare. 

I used to send a Christmas Card to a friend of my parents (deceased), due to his age, this year I put my address on the back of the envelope.  This year the card was returned, the envelope just marked "Return to address overleaf".  I wrote to the Matron of the home where this man lived to ask if he'd died or been moved elsewhere, explaining that he was a friend of my parents and if he'd just been moved I didn't want him to think I'd forgotten him.  Seven months later I've had no response.  I can't think it would have been too difficult to let me know whether he'd died or not.  I don't know where I can look up deaths in 2012 or 2013 or 2014, (I know he was alive earlier than that because he wrote to me), apart from large libraries in London, Manchester etc. and as his wife had died and he had no children, I doubt an announcement would have been put in the local paper.