From 9 September 2024, all deaths in any health setting that are not investigated by a coroner will be reviewed by NHS Medical Examiners (ME).
From that date, there will also be a new medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD). Medical practitioners will be able to complete a MCCD if they attended the deceased in their lifetime. This is a change from the current requirement for a medical practitioner to refer to the coroner for review if they had not have seen the deceased within the 28 days prior to death, or after death.
Medical Examiners were introduced following the Shipman and other public inquiries to:
- To safeguard the public by ensuring independent scrutiny of all non-coronial deaths
- Make sure appropriate direction of deaths to the coroner
- Provide a better service to the bereaved and an opportunity for them to raise concerns to a doctor not involved in the care of the deceased
- Improve the quality of death certification
- Improve the quality of mortality data.
Medical examiners are based in acute general hospitals and are senior medical doctors trained in the legal and clinical elements of death certification processes.