"Decision making about my mother's care."

After my mother went into hospital suddenly, her ex-boyfriend lied to hospital staff that he was her partner and her next of kin. She had only recently managed to have the strength to leave an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with this man. He gave permission for my mother to be taken off life support and he attempted to register the death so he could have the body cremated. All of this took place without her children or any of her family even knowing that she had died.

In the six weeks since then her family have been trying to find out how she died, why she died, and what day she died. The hospital have been impossible to get in touch with and have not offered any information at all.

I am not blaming them for believing this man when he lied about being next of kin, but I am shocked that from our experience, any Tom Dick or Harry can saunter through the doors with a dying person, lie that they're next of kin, and be given authority to make decisions about life support and to burn the body without the person's family or the police even knowing about the death.

I have been attempting to contact Northwick Park PALS for over two months and have left dozens of voicemails and sent dozens of emails, and have not had a single response. Only once was I able to get through on the phone (normally it goes straight to voicemail) and the person I spoke to told me they would speak to a manager and phone me back within an hour, that was two weeks ago and I am still waiting