Medical Examiner Service
Contact us
Email: ekhuft.medicalexaminerofficers@nhs.net
We have offices at the William Harvey Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, and Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
What we do
The Medical Examiner Service has been developed following a number of recommendations from key inquiries to provide greater scrutiny of all non-coronial deaths in England and Wales.
The Medical Examiner system is designed to:
Provide bereaved families with greater transparency and opportunities to raise concerns.
Improve the quality/accuracy of medical certification of cause of death (Death Certificate).
Ensure referrals to coroners are appropriate.
Provide the public with greater safeguards through improved and consistent scrutiny of all non-coronial deaths, and support healthcare providers to improve care through better learning.
Who are Medical Examiners?
Medical Examiners are senior independent doctors who have received specialist training in the legal and clinical elements of the death certification process. Their role includes:
Advise on whether or not the law requires the coroner to be informed about a death.
Advise doctors on how best to certify the cause of death.
Identify situations where some aspect of healthcare could have been improved, and feedback suggestions for possible improvements in the future.
Medical Examiners are assisted by the Medical Examiners Officers, who are not doctors but have experience of the healthcare system and have had training for their role. They manage cases from initial notification through to completion and are essential for the effective and efficient working of the service.
Medical Examiners and Medical Examiner Officers offer next of kin’s a chance to ask questions or raise concerns about the cause of death or about the care their loved one received before their death.
The Medical Examiner Office, although located within all 3 sites of East Kent Hospitals, is independent and impartial in its work of reviewing patient deaths.
The Coroner
Some deaths must be notified to the Coroner. When the Coroner starts an investigation, they will investigate the death independently – although the Medical Examiner may still provide expert medical advice to the Coroner.
Find out more about Coroner services on the Government website.
National Audit of Care at the End of Life: take part in a survey
If you have lost a loved one in hospital, we would like to invite you to take part in the National Audit of Care at the End of Life (NACEL). The survey has been set up to look at the quality of care experienced by people who died in hospitals in England and Wales.
If you are able to, we would appreciate hearing your thoughts about the care received during the last admission in hospital and your experience at that time, by inviting you to take part in an online Quality Survey. Your help will be greatly appreciated, but there is no obligation to fill in the survey. If you think it would be more appropriate for someone else to complete the survey, you are welcome to pass the link on to them.
To provide the national audit with information about your experience, please access the Quality Survey
Information for Heath Professionals
If you are a healthcare professional, please find resources on our Medical Examiner Service for health professionals page.