The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is looking to recruit an enthusiastic and highly motivated Medical Examiner Officer ( MEO).
The role of the Medical Examiner Officer is to ensure support for Medical Examiners (MEs) in their role in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death, and to be a point of contact for coroner and registration services. The MEO is a source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare professionals and the bereavement service.
The Medical Examiner Officer is a highly responsible and involved role and will require a dedicated and driven applicant.
The Medical Examiner Officer role will incorporate clinical and administrative skills in ensuring necessary paperwork is accurate and complete, but also excellent communication skills during liaison with doctors, nurses, families, and coronial and registration services. Part of the day to day work will also involve investigation work and perusal of patient notes and liaison with GPs and Hospital Doctors.. Therefore a good working knowledge of medical terminology is vital.
The principal functions are:
• To provide the bereaved with explanation, transparency and early opportunity to ask questions or raise concerns.
• To improve accuracy and quality in all aspects of the medical certification of the cause of death.
• To ensure or assist with appropriate referral to the Coroner.
• To safeguard the public through consistent scrutiny of all non-coronial deaths.
• To support clinical governance in learning and improvement.
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the only acute Hospital in the London Borough of Hillingdon and offers a wide range of services including accident and emergency, inpatient care, day surgery, outpatient clinics and maternity services. The Trust’s services at Mount Vernon Hospital include routine day surgery, delivered at a modern treatment centre, a minor injuries unit and outpatient clinics.
The safety and well-being of our patients and of our staff is paramount and we are making urgent improvements to address this – particularly in infection prevention and control. We are making progress and going forward by working in partnership with local GPs, charities,
community services, academic partners, our local authority, neighbouring hospitals and the wider North West London Integrated care system, and ensuring that we listen and work in partnership with our local population. We are absolutely focused on ensuring that our hospitals
provide high quality, safe and compassionate care, while drive forward the building of the new Hillingdon Hospital.
We have over 3,500 members of staff that are proud to care for nearly half a million people, with a vision to be an outstanding provider of healthcare through leading health and academic partnerships, transforming services, to provide the best care where needed.
The Medical Examiners Office is located in the Bereavement suite at Hillingdon Hospital. This enables the Medical Examiners to scrutinise every inpatient death t and those occurring anywhere in Hillingdon Borough where there is no coronial investigation, as specified in the current legislation - Registration of Death Regulations (Medical Examiner) (2024).
Successful applicants will be expected to complete online training (via eLearning for Health) produced by the Royal College of Pathologists prior to commencement of the post. There is formal further training including that specified in the Regulations to be undertaken while in post.
Job responsibilities
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 local area, or to liaise with the coroner in cases referred.
Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for a full list of role requirements and main responsibilities.
This advert closes on Friday 31 Jan 2025