Verification of Death (VOD) is the establishment of the fact of death (deciding whether someone has died).

VOD has nothing to do with the certification of death (issuing of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD)

There is no requirement in English law OR in the GP contract for a GP to VERIFY death.

English Law allows that any competent adult may verify that someone has died, but it does not place them under a legal obligation to do so. This could be a GP, nurse, paramedic, police officer OR even the person reporting the death such as a family member.

The timely and efficient verification of death is important for the bereaved, but this does not mean that it any expectation should be placed on the GP to verify a death by another organisation (e.g EMAS, Police, funeral director) unless as the GP, you choose to do so for supportive or practical reasons as your primary responsibility is to your living patients.

Recent unilateral policy changes by EMAS and the Police that they will not attend some deaths have led to more practices being asked or feeling pressured into attending deaths to verify.

Some such requests could put you in difficult situations (such as unexpected deaths requiring coroner’s investigation) as well as taking you away from caring for sick patients.

We have created this flowchart as guidance:

* note you may want to attend for specific reasons such as family support or needing to see the deceased in order to be able to complete MCCD if not seen in previous 28 days BUT have attended in last illness.