Medical Examiner Officer

We are recruiting for a third Medical Examiner Officer to join the Trust as part of the national implementation of the Medical Examiner system in England and Wales.

You will work directly to the Lead Medical Examiner assisting in a broad range of issues including being proactive in contacting relatives on behalf of the Medical Examiner of deceased patients before the death certificate is issued to establish if they have any concerns or questions about the death, and working with healthcare professionals and coroner and registration services to ensure that the work of the medical examiner’s office is completed in a timely, efficient and sensitive manner.

You will manage the Medical Examiner's office ensuring internal and external qualitative and quantitative key performance indicators are managed and achieved and work closely with the bereavement team, coronal and registrar services to provide the best experience for bereaved families

The local Medical Examiners (ME’s) will be supported by a Medical Examiner Officer (MEO) and they will have close liaison with the Coroner’s office. The MEO role is separate and independent of the Learning from Deaths Structure Judgement Review process (SJR) but is anticipated to enhance related systems, such as the screening of deaths and the accuracy of death certificates. The purpose of the post is to support ME’s in their role in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death. The MEO will be a point of contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare professionals, the coroner and registration services.

We are always looking for enterprising and innovative approaches to the way we provide our services. We are a national centre for telemedicine and introduced telehealth to the UK offender healthcare sector and also provide the service to patients in their care homes. Community matters to us and we are supported by 400 dedicated volunteers and have strong links with Bradford University, Craven College and Leeds City College to ensure we inspire the workforce of the future.

We want to attract staff who embrace our Right Care behaviours of compassion, a commitment to quality of care and working together for patients we want to make these part of our DNA.

2. JOB SUMMARY

The Department of Health announced the introduction of Medical Examiners from April 2019 to “independently review and confirm cause of death”. This is a national extension of the initial programme which began in 2005 following the Shipman Enquiry whereby subsequent enquiries determined that a Medical Examiner’s Office could have played a vital role as a conduit for relatives’ concerns.

Medical examiners are part of a national network of specifically trained independent senior doctors overseen by the National Medical Examiner (ME) for NHS England.

The local Medical Examiners (ME’s) will be supported by a Medical Examiner Officer (MEO) and they will have close liaison with the Coroner’s office. The MEO role is separate and independent of the Learning from Deaths Structure Judgement Review process (SJR) but is anticipated to enhance related systems, such as the screening of deaths and the accuracy of death certificates. The purpose of the post is to support ME’s in their role in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death. The MEO will be a point of contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare professionals, the coroner and registration services.

As the Airedale ME Office will be working collaboratively with Bradford Hospitals ME Office, there may be a requirement to work from that office and host Bradford staff in the Airedale office on occasions. Office procedures will be aligned as much as possible between Bradford and Airedale.

The intention is that the service will expand to 7-days so post holders must be willing to work at weekends and on bank holidays as part of a rota system as this develops.

3. ROLE OF THE MEDICAL EXAMINER’S OFFICE
To independently review and confirm cause of death and provide a high standard of specialised care and advice for the relatives of deceased patients, and inform and communicate with healthcare professionals, the coroner and registration services.
- To act as an intermediary between the bereaved and clinicians to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patient’s death.
- Work with medical examiners to aid them in their responsibility for overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation.
- To establish the circumstances of individual patient deaths by performing a preliminary review of medical records to identify clinical and circumstantial information, sourcing additional details where required, for scrutiny by the medical examiner.
- To assist in 1st stage mortality screening reviews and highlighting cases for assessment of further investigation either through the Structured Judgement Review (SJR) process, Child Death Overvie