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When a child dies

Checked: 23-04-2022 by Vicky Ryan Next Review: 23-04-2023

Guidelines for GPs on receiving notification of a child death

Fortunately, a child death is a rare event in General Practice.

The following checklist is a useful reminder for good practice following a notification (usually by phone call) from a health professional.

Ensure named GP for the parent is informed as urgent message. If named GP away then inform duty doctor as well.

Ensure that the mother (and father if registered at the practice), deceased child and all siblings have the same named doctor

Add an alert to the screen of the parents of the death and date so subsequent medical contacts dealt with appropriately

Use SNOMED code of “Child of patient deceased” and brief reason on parents notes

Use SNOMED code “Bereavement” and brief consultation note on siblings notes

Phone mum to offer condolences at an appropriate time. This may be a few days hence as often parents have had so many phone calls by the time you receive notification.

Deduct the child from the NHS spine asap so no inappropriate contact is made

Cancel the child’s immunisations so no invitations are sent out

You may wish to inform the community midwife if the child is under 8 weeks.

At a later stage you will be asked to complete a Reporting Form by the Child Death Overview Panel which will ask for medical details on the child and their parents. This will be requested by email and needs to be completed online (the email will explain the process)

There will be a Child Death Review meeting for every child a few months after death to which the GP is invited alongside all professionals involved to see if there is any wider learning.

Remember the person who took the call may need support within the practice.

Please also see the End of life care - children Remedy page for other useful information.

Useful contacts

NICU support services:

Royal United Hospital Bereavement Midwife - Bex Walsh: rebekahwalsh@nhs.net / 07872 696 165 / 01225 826 886
Southmead Hospital Bereavement Midwife – Sarah Brooks: bereavementmidwives@nbt.nhs.uk

St Michael’s Hospital Bereavement Midwife – Fay Hamilton: fay.hamilton@uhbw.nhs.uk

Child Death Review Office: ubh-tr.cdop@nhs.net / 0117 3425141

Children's Bereavement Support Team

If the child died in hospital or was taken to ED follow up will be arranged by the Child Bereavement Team at the hospital 0117 342 7293

email : ChildrensBereavementSupportTeam@uhbw.nhs.uk

How to support a bereaved family or friend of a child:

The Paediatric Palliative Care and Bereavement Support Team (PPCBST) based at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children (BRHC) are able to support the family of any child or young people who die at BRHC, or lived in the local area for secondary care services. There are also many third sector organisations offering support following the death of a child. Please see their website for further details of their service and signposting to other organisations. http://www.uhbristol.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/your-hospitals/bristol-royal-hospital-for-children/what-we-do/paediatric-palliative-care-and-bereavement-support-team/

Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.

Information provided through Remedy is continually updated so please be aware any printed copies may quickly become out of date.