Medical Examiner Officer

Medical Examiner Officer for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire - Band 5 Would you like to be part of a specialist team with responsibility across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire? Do you have an interest in improving care for patients at the end of their life, informing public health policy, and providing bereaved families with support and peace of mind? As a Medical ExaminerOfficer, you'll be part of a recently implemented service that provides independent scrutiny of all deaths across the area. You'll work with a multidisciplinary team both internally and externally including Medical Examiners and other medical staff, HM Coroner's Office, Bereavement Services staff, and Registration Services, as well as having close contact with bereaved families. Why apply for this role?

• You will be part of a new, developing NHS service with plenty of opportunity for personal and professional growth and an impact on service improvement
• Highly rewarding role contributing to patient safety, improving the experience of bereaved families, and informing national health policy by ensuring accurate cause of death statistics
• Chance to be part of a varied and skilled multidisciplinary team with a high level of autonomy and responsibility, The role of the Medical Examiner Officer is to support Medical Examiners in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death. As a Medical Examiner Officer, you will:
• Undertake a review of patients' medical records to assist the Medical Examiner in their scrutiny;
• Discuss the case and assist in the formulation of causes of death with the qualified attending medical practitioners (QAPs) and Medical Examiners;
• Provide an explanation of the cause of death to the bereaved, identifying and gathering information and answering questions relating to their concerns;
• Relay the Medical Examiner's thoughts and advice to medical professionals, Coroner's Offices, Registration Services, and the bereaved;
• Be a point of contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare, coroner, and registration services about the Medical Examiner function., The Medical Examiner Service is an independent service working under the direction of the Department of Health and Social Care, which aims to:
• Strengthen safeguards for the public by providing robust, systematic and independent scrutiny of all deaths not referred directly to the Coroner; provide intelligent analysis and system level reporting of concerns found during scrutiny; and ensure that appropriate deaths are referred to HM Coroner;
• Improve the quality of death certification by providing expert advice to doctors based on a review of relevant health records;
• Avoid unnecessary distress for the bereaved by answering questions about the certified cause of death, the care given, or those that arise from unexpected delays when registering a death.
Medical Examiners are senior doctors who undertake independent scrutiny of deaths in order to establish an accurate cause of death and identify cases where the circumstances surrounding that death require further investigation.