Ash cash is the money you get when you sign a cremation form. Basically, when a patient dies in hospital, the most junior doctor in the firm, which is usually the house officer, writes the death certificate for the patient. If the patient is to be cremated, the mortuary will ring up the doctor who wrote the death certificate to sign the cremation form. It’s not compulsory to be the same doctor but it’s easier that way. Signing the cremation form takes only 10 minutes and we’re paid 58 pounds for doing so. Hence, the term Ash Cash.
By doing a random survey of my colleagues, I found out that on average, we would most probably sign about 10-20 cremation forms a year. That is actually quite a lot of money which is earned pre-tax. Legally, one should declare the extra income for tax purposes but some do not or feign ignorance. However, I do know that the mortuary keeps an accurate record of how many cremation forms that each doctor has sign so it’s very easy for the taxman to hunt you down. =P (And fyi, I have declared mine.)
Although signing the cremation form seems very simple, it is actually quite a serious matter. This is because one has to be absolutely sure of the cause of death as once the body is cremated, there is no way of exhuming the body in the future. In the form itself, it asks questions such as whether one has any doubt that the patient died due to neglect, violence, abuse etc. So in a way, if we sign a cremation form, and it turns out in the future that there are some doubts about the patient’s death, we will be questioned about it. Seems like an awful lot of responsibility now, eh? For a mere 58 pounds….
