Deaths During Pandemic
BMA Remote Verification of Death
Government Guidance on Completing Certificates
Managing Deaths in Primary Care Flow Chart
NHSEI excess death provisions: information and guidance for medical practitioners
Deputy Registrar General’s letter
BMA Guidance
Click the text below for the document.
BMA Remote Verification of Death
Government Guidance on Completing Medical Certificates of Cause of Death
Pleas click this link to see guidance.
Managing Deaths in primary Care During COVID19 Crisis
This is from this Pulse Article and was based on The Coronavirus Bill. The bill has now been passed and gained Royal Assent and is therefore now law – called The Coronovirus Act 2020.
NHSEI Guidance on Excess death provisions for GPs
Deputy Registrar General
The Registrar General’s office have issued a letter confirming the changes that have taken place following the The Coronovirus Act 2020.
The Key Points are:
- Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) can be signed by any medical practitioner as long as they can state the cause of death
- MCCD can be accepted without referral to the coroner as long as acceptable cause of death and deceased has been seen by a medical practitioner within the last 28 days or after death (doesn’t have to be the certifying medical practitioner)
- Video link counts as seen 28 days before but video link CANNOT be used for seen after death.
- Amend MCCD to indicate who saw the deceased and when.
- Emailing the MCCD or cremation form is fine. Ink Signature still needed on original scanned document.
- After all this is over the original forms need to be sent.
Coroner’s Guidance
This is aimed at the Coroners from the Chief Coroner. However, each coroner has the choice to accept the guidance or not.
However the following points I think are relevant:
- Under point 10 – the last sub point, the suggestion is to be lenient with timing for reports etc from Medical professionals.
- Under point 18 it states:
- COVID-19 is an acceptable cause of death.
- COVID-19 alone is not a reason to refer to coroner
- COVID-19 is a notifiable disease but does not make it referable to the coroner.
- For registration, if NOK are in isolation then an alternate informant whop has not been in contact can collect the MCCD and deliver to the registrar – but this should be doable electronically.
- Point 22 acknowledges for some deaths a MCCD (Medical Certificate of Cause of Death) may still need coroner disucsion
- Points under 23 – cover the reasoning and actions by coroners in the event of the above – but a pragmatic view is to be taken.
