Medical Examiner Officer

at  Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

The ME service will consider and respond to 3 key issues: (1) The cause of death to ensure that it is recorded accurately on the MCCD. This will minimise the potential for the registrar to decline to issue a certificate of death as a result of inappropriate or unacceptable descriptions on the MCCD and the resultant negative impact on the relatives of the deceased. They will be responsible for ensuring all relevant paperwork required by relatives is completed in a timely fashion, including additional paperwork associated with the ME process. (2) Whether the death needs to be reported to the coroner evidence from pilot sites and early adopters indicates that the implementation of an ME service reduces the number of inappropriate referrals to the coroner and improves the timeliness when a referral is required.
(3) Whether there are any clinical governance issues related to the death early review of patient notes and discussions with relatives will allow timely identification of potential significant incident investigations. The MEO will support the MEs in their role in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death. They will be a point of contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare professionals and coroner and registration services. The MEO will provide advice and support to junior doctors and nursing staff regarding the legal requirements relating to registration of death, completion of necessary investigations including referral to the Coroners office and documentation for cremations

Please refer the Job description for details