Death Certification and Medical Examiner System Changes: Stay Ahead

| Read time: 5 mins

Undoubtedly, front of mind for crematorium operators across the UK are the biggest changes to Death Certification in England and Wales for over 50 years, due to commence on 9th September, as brought into effect by the Ministry of Justice.

After that time, all deaths in England and Wales, except stillborn babies, will be scrutinised by a Medical Examiner, (or in the case of unexpected or unexplained deaths, by the Coroner).

A full explanation of what is happening and why was issued by the ICCM and can be read here.

Information has also been published by the Ministry of Justice, which can be found here along with signposting to further resources by the ICCM.

What that means in practice

For burials, the only change will be in the green form that is required ahead of the burial, which will now contain information about medical implants.

For Coroner’s cases, the Coroner will issue a slightly amended Order for Burial, which will also contain information about medical implants.

Cremation will have a newly revised system in place.  As all deaths will be independently scrutinised, no medical forms will be required ahead of a cremation. Most cremations will require a number of revised statutory forms.

The details of those can be found here.

Medical referees will continue to be required to scrutinise the statutory cremation paperwork and to authorise cremation, while the right of bereaved people to inspect the cremation forms ahead of the cremation will be removed, but have been given an opportunity to raise any concerns directly with the medical examiner.

What this means for crematorium operators

In theory, this new system will simplify the cremation process as there will no longer be a need to check certain details on medical forms, but inevitably there are broader implications for crematorium operators.

Within the sector there remains some uncertainty in how exactly these changes will transpire procedurally.

For example, will additional checks be required in relation to hazardous implants? What additional information needs to be recorded by the crematorium, and therefore what is the impact on software applications? And is there a need for broader communication to the public?

How PlotBox is Helping

Our customers have always played a key role in developing the roadmap for our products. That means listening to what they have to say, understanding their challenges, and keeping abreast of changes in legislation that might impact how they operate.

Because of this, we’ve been able to act quickly in implementing a number of essential updates that will help crematorium operators to navigate these changes successfully.

The Updates We’ve Made

Cremation Form

We've added a new field on the Cremation ‘add and edit’ forms, meaning that users can now record the medical examiner against each cremation. They can create new medical examiner contacts from that screen as well which flows better than the user navigating out of the cremation form, and into settings to add the new medical examiner contact.

Record Form

On the record form, we've added a new field that will populate from the cremation form if the Medical Examiner information has been recorded against the cremation. Otherwise, if the user is creating a record with no linked cremation event, they can add the Medical Examiner on the ‘record add’ form.

Medical Contact Report

Medical Examiner has now been added to the medical contact report. This means users can run the report to view the frequency of cremations signed off per Medical Examiner for a given time period.

New Document Tag

A new tag has been created for Medical Examiner which will be available on documents including the Cremation Certificate, Order and pickup, as well as custom cremation documents.

As the situation evolves, we will be adding any further updates necessary to help ensure that your services are not unduly impacted by the changes. 

If you would like to know more about how we’re responding to the legislation changes and what it means for you and your solution, contact your PlotBox Customer Success Manager today.

For general queries, contact us here.