-----Original Message-----
From: Trefor Roscoe [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 30 August 2007 16:32
To: 'General Practitioner's Committee discussion list'
Subject: Proposed changes to death certification

I have been following up a point that occurred to me during an LMC meeting
this week.

The new proposals for death certification talk about the medical examiner
contacting the doctors involved, relatives and others and examining the
paper records.  This process is OK during the working week but will be much
more difficult at weekends and bank holidays.

There are a considerable number of patients who for religious reasons wish
to be buried within 24 hours if at all possible.

At the moment, according to a good friend of mine there is an on call
registrar who can register the death if a certificate has been issued.
Presumably certificates are issued in the out of hours period for those who
require them at the moment. I have personally never come across this in 20
years, but I practice in an area with a very small non-Christian population.

The new system will have to work weekends and bank holidays to emulate this,
and they will have to contact the usual GP during these times to get access
to the notes unless there is going to be unnecessary delay. A person of
faith dying on a Thursday evening before a four day Easter or Christmas
weekend is unlikely to be able to be buried for several days. I know that
the various religions have special dispensation for coroners cases but they
are a tiny minority of deaths at the moment. My understanding is that the
proposals will apply to all deaths, not just those in the community. A
significant delay for all deaths is likely to cause much understandable
upset amongst the faithful of several religions.

Has this point been raised in the feedback to the proposals? If it is not
thought about it will create a lot of work for GPs as well.

Apologies if I have missed this in the discussions, perhaps colleagues on
GPC of different faiths can shed some light on an area that I admit I am no
expert at.

Trefor

Dr Trefor Roscoe
Medical Informatics Consultant
www.medical-legal.co.uk