Medical Examiners Office

The statutory implementation of medical examiner system will be coming to all Dartford and Gravesham GP practices by April 2024, (under legislation in the 2022 Health and Care Act). 

So far, we have now partnered up with around 70% of the local practices in Dartford and Gravesham areas. Our Medical Examiner Office now scrutinises not only our own hospital deaths, but also the community deaths referred to us by our GP’s in the community.

The findings from the Shipman Inquiry in 2003, concluded that the process around death certification needed to become more robust, by strengthening safeguards for the public. Independent scrutiny of the medical circumstances and causes of death would help to provide this. It would also improve the quality and accuracy of the medical certificate of cause of death and the bereaved would be given transparency into the circumstances and offered opportunity to raise any concerns they have around this or with regards to care their loved one received. The system has also been introduced to help improve quality of care and deter criminal activity.

Sheffield piloted the first Medical Examiner’s system in the UK in 2008 and in 2019, the introduction of a non-statutory medical examiner system throughout all of the UK began and medical examiner offices are now established in NHS trusts where required. Currently they scrutinise all deaths within their trusts. However, from April 2024, the system will become statutory for these offices to scrutinise all non-coronial deaths, including those within their community outside of their trust, and it will be recognised that this process is law.

See our ‘GP roll out’ section below for further information on how work closely with our local GPs to be ready for the April 2024 statutory system.

For further information, you can visit the NHS Medical Examiner’s website here.

First of all, if you are having to read this section, please accept our sincere condolences, we are very sorry for the loss of your loved one. We know that after losing someone, it can be very overwhelming, especially when the question is asked of ‘what happens next?’.

Firstly, you should have been provided with our bereavement booklet, titled ‘what happens now?’ Everything is explained in detail in this booklet.

If for some reason you are unable to access this booklet, we have broken it down into simple steps below of the Medical Examiner process:

1. You will receive a call from the Medical Examiner Officer, who will talk you through the process, take down any concerns you have regarding care that your relative or friend had received and answer any questions you may have.
2. Once your loved one’s case has been reviewed by the Medical Examiner, they will call the next of kin and inform them of the proposed cause of death for the death certificate.
3. If all is well, our Bereavement team will send all of the relevant documentation to the Registry office (where you will be collecting the death certificate from). The Bereavement team will call you to let you know once this has been done. At this point, you would need to call a central line for the Registry office to arrange appointment to collect Death Certificate. You are able to choose any registry office in the area which is most suited to you. Registrar phone number 03000 415 151
4. If the Medical Examiner decides that your loved one’s case will need to be reviewed by a Coroner, they will inform you of this decision and the reasons behind this. The Medical Examiner Officers would make the coroner’s referral and you would then be contacted by the Coroner’s office who will inform you of next steps. 

• Darent Valley Bereavement Service
• Registry office
• Kent County Council Coroners
• Additional bereavement support
• NHS Medical Examiners website
• Find a Funeral Director near you