This course will explain the September 2024 changes to the role of the medical examiner (ME) in the death certification process. It is relevant to GPs working in England and Wales. It will outline the process by which a GP and an ME will communicate to facilitate the production of a medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD), and how this will work in straightforward and more complex cases. The background to this change will be discussed in brief and the course will also review the rules around what can and can’t be given as a cause of death, the circumstances in which direct referral to the coroner should be done, and the practical issues that may arise as the new system gets going.
This course was produced by RCGP Learning. Editorial and content decisions were made solely by the RCGP.
