Coroners Referral 

You may have be aware the government has confirmed that the long-awaited death certification reforms will be enacted from April 2024, including the role of the medical examiner (ME) becoming statutory. Once that happens, it will not be possible for a death to be registered without ME sign-off. The details of the reforms and draft regulations can be read here: DHSC overview of death certification reform and medical examiners

The main changes are:

·         Removal of the requirement for the attending doctor to have seen the deceased within 28 days – any doctor who attended the deceased during their lifetime and knows the cause of death can complete the MCCD.

·         Several changes to the MCCD including adding information about whether it’s a maternal death, the ethnicity of the deceased and whether they had any medical devices e.g. pacemaker.

-The new MCCD books will be issued to all practices.

- The digital MCCD is planned for later in the year and will supersede the paper version.

·         The statutory time frame in which families must register the death remains 5 days but this does not start until the Registrar receives the cause of death from the ME or Coroner.

·         There will be no requirement for registrars to refer cases to the Coroner i.e. the attending doctor and ME will agree the cause of death and this will not be rejected/referred by the registrar, even if it is currently an unacceptable cause of death.

·         Cremation form 4 will no longer be required, the permission to proceed will be dependent on ME or Coroner approval.

This podcast explains some of the new reforms: podcast about the DHSC’s draft regulations published 14 December 2023.