The Registrar General De-partment (RGD) says it will be working closely with funeral directors islandwide to improve the collection of data relating to deaths in Jamaica.

This collaboration will also support the efforts of funeral directors, as they seek to obtain death certificates on behalf of families who have lost loved ones.

Chief Executive Officer of the RGD, Dr. Patricia Holness, said the move would help to bridge the gap in the death registration process, as many persons are still unaware of what is involved in registering a death.

"Our highest level of customer complaints relates to death registration and the procedures for obtaining a certified copy of the death record," she said.

Customer satisfaction

According to Dr. Holness, the RGD has been working assiduously to improve death registration and customer satisfaction in these areas and, as such, has embarked on a number of initiatives that would be implemented in collaboration with the funeral directors.

These initiatives, she said, were agreed on at the agency's first seminar for funeral directors held in early December, at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston, where some 67 funeral directors were present.

Among the initiatives is a system of identification for funeral directors. Identification cards issued by the RGD will allow them hassle-free access to the agency's offices. This will support their new role, which will see them applying for death certificates on behalf of their clients.

Death certificates

"We have asked them to make applications for death certificates of all burials at the time of the funeral. Some funeral homes have already been offering this service as a package to family members who have lost their loved ones," Dr. Holness said.

She added the RGD will be making special arrangements to ensure that certified copies are delivered promptly to funeral directors, who will now include the application for a death certificate as part of their burial arrangement packages.

Also, as part of the agreement reached with funeral directors, Dr. Holness said the RGD's service of issuing burial orders would be accessible to them at all times, that is 24 hours a day.

With respect to burial orders, all those issued by the police, as well as those that are issued by the local district registrar will bear the RGD logo and will be prenumbered.