Blog | Reflections on the National Medical Examiners System

As part of the Department of Health’s Death Certification Reforms, a new statutory Medical Examiner System is being rolled out later this year across England and Wales. From 9 September 2024 Medical Examiners will be responsible for checking over and signing off death certificates and reviewing all deaths that aren't investigated by a coroner.

The National Medical Examiners System will deliver trusted, thorough and independent assessment of patient deaths. It is undoubtedly a critical step towards better supporting bereaved individuals, as well as ensuring systematic learning and improvement across the NHS workforce.

The primary care record can offer a lot of insight into the last stages of a person’s life and it is important that those investigations happen in a thorough and transparent way.

However, there may be understandable concerns from practices regarding the potential administrative burden this new process may bring, and how this additional workload can be managed by already overstretched primary care teams.

Furthermore, I believe we must look to move away from ways of working that perpetuate the manual transcription and transfer of data between organisations. Instead, looking towards gold standard information governance, whereby data does not unnecessarily move and those with the appropriate permissions and intention are able to view the data at source.

The Electronic Patient Record Viewer (EPRV) transforms and modernises this process.

The EPR Viewer allows Medical Examiners, with the appropriate permission, to directly access the deceased’s patient records without data moving or having to wait for it to being transcribed out of a system. They are then able to undertake their necessary diligence quickly and efficiently, providing the bereaved with a quicker resolution, and without placing any further demands on frontline clinical services. The Bereavement and Medical Examiner Services Team at Royal Stoke University Hospital have already been working with 50% of their referring GPs who have been saving a significant amount of time thanks to the EPR Viewer.

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About the author

Dr Ian Wood

Clinical director

Ian is an NHS GP with extensive experience in regional and national roles representing the medical profession. He has served as a Clinical Director at Optum for over six years, bringing a deep understanding of the challenges facing General Practice and a commitment to supporting patients to access the right care, at the right time. Ian has a particular interest in mental health and digital therapeutics, and also serves as the UK Medical Director for Big Health, creators of Sleepio.