Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has started delivery of the new Medical Certificates of Cause of Death (MCCDs). Many MCCDs have been distributed and deliveries to practices are on track to be completed by the end of July.  The new MCCD must be used for all deaths from 9 September 2024, but cannot be used before this. If you have not receive the new forms, check you are on DHSC’s distribution list.  Please contact mccd@dhsc.gov.uk with any queries.    

Update from Arden’s Ltd on SystmOne noticeboard: Posted Thu 5 September 2024

As of Monday 9th September 2024, the Death Documentation template will be amended to reflect the enforcement of significant death certification reforms as per Gov.uk.

In summary, these are:

• All non-coronial deaths (deaths that are not reportable to a coroner) are to be referred to a local Medical Examiner’s Office with a proposed cause of death by the attending practitioner
• A medical practitioner will be eligible to be an attending practitioner if they have attended the deceased in their lifetime.
• After referral to the Medical Examiner’s Office, the Medical Examiner will scrutinise the proposed cause of death and decide if the attending practitioner can proceed and complete an MCCD. If this is the case (in the vast majority), the attending practitioner completes the MCCD and sends it back to the Medical Examiner for their final sign-off. Note the medical examiner will send the MCCD to the registrar to notify them of the cause of death after their final sign-off, and this notification will also start the 5-day statutory time frame to register the death. (There is a common misconception that the 5 day time frame starts from the time of death).
• A new MCCD will replace the existing certificate. Amongst other things, this will now include a section on recording medical devices and implants by the attending practitioner as this will be transferred to the certificate for burial or cremation (contained in the green form) completed by the registrar to inform relevant authorities of the presence of any devices or implants. This, together with the medical examiner’s scrutiny replaces the form Cremation 4, which will become obsolete.

Please note, the attending practitioner can report a death directly to the coroner as usual where they believe they are under a statutory duty to do so. In this scenario, there is no regulatory requirement for the attending practitioner to inform the medical examiner.