Job summary
To support the Medical Examiners (ME) in their role scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death. To be a point of contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare professionals and coroner and registration services.
To support in the integration and implementation of systems and processes relating to the Medical Examiner role and the national learning from deaths strategy.
To help manage the Trust mortality systems ensuring internal and external qualitative and quantitative key performance indicators are managed and achieved.
To act as a Trust expert for mortality processes and systems and to ensure that medical and administrative staff involved in the process are appropriately trained and supported to fulfil their responsibilities relating to the Medical Examiner and learning from death agenda.
Main duties of the job
To establish the circumstances of individual patient deaths by performing a preliminary review of medical records. To understand clinical pathways and interactions, sourcing additional details where required, and allocate referrals for scrutiny to the medical examiners by medical speciality.
To act as an intermediary between the bereaved and clinicians to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patient's death. Working with medical examiners to aid them in their responsibility for overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients within the remit of the service.
To work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders for the purposes of ensuring statutory requirements are maintained, demonstrating insight and understanding of ethical and legal issues (including HTA, Human Tissue Authority) relating to Mortuary, Bereavement and other care after death services.
About us
MTW is a large acute hospital trust in the south-east of England.
We provide a full range of general hospital services and some aspects of specialist and complex care to around 600,000 people living in west Kent and East Sussex. We have a team of over 8,000 full and part-time staff. We also provide specialist cancer services to around 2 million people across Kent and East Sussex via the Kent Oncology Centre.
In the 2024 NHS staff survey, our employees ranked MTW among the top 10 NHS Trusts nationwide and the second-best Trust to work for in the South East.
Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Once your pre-employment checks have been completed you will be contacted by Recruitment to arrange your start date which will be in line with one of our Corporate Inductions.
Please note that appointment to this post will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure & Barring Service Check at Basic Leve l. (Enhanced level now includes regulated checks against vulnerable adults and children.
At MTW, we seek to develop a culture where everyone can reach their full potential with opportunities to grow and develop their career. We recognise and value the unique contributions that each of our staff bring, delivering the best quality care and service to our patients. We are committed to being a diverse employer and strive to reflect everyone in our local communities. We welcome applications from people of diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experiences and celebrate the diversity of thought, viewpoints and ideas that will make our Trust the best place to work.
We support our staff with disabilities to ensure they have the adjustments they need to be the best they can be in the workplace. Collaborating with Access to Work means that our staff are assessed by experts in the workplace and we ensure that their recommendations are implemented as quickly as possible. You can find out more here: Access to Work: get support if you have a disability or health condition: What Access to Work is - (
Interview Date: 8th January 2025.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
1. Educated to Batchelor's degree level, or evidence of study/equivalent practical experience at an advanced level; this might include clinical and/or other relevant experience.
2. Experience in the day-to-day operational management of a customer-facing service
Desirable
3. Completion of online Medical Examiner training modules
Experience/Knowledge
Essential
4. Experience within a healthcare, bereavement or funeral service environment and Specialist knowledge of various faith groups' funeral wishes/practices to enable respectful compliance with tight and specific timescales and procedures.
5. General knowledge of medical terminology that enables informed discussions about causes/circumstances of death with bereaved families, clinicians, coroner and registration service staff.
6. Experience of delivering complex information in emotive and potentially challenging circumstances and Knowledge of the statutory process around death certification legal frameworks
7. Ability to work as part of a team and organise fluctuating workload around competing priorities
Desirable
8. Understanding of the medical examiner system service operates independently and aligns with other related organisations and NHS initiatives (LeDeR, CDOP).
9. Knowledge of the appropriate legislative frameworks and Knowledge of the HTA
10. Experience of quality management, and incident reporting
Skills
Essential
11. Empathetic and self-awareness skills to deal with the bereaved and other professionals who may have barriers to accepting or understanding information due to their personal circumstances
12. Computer literate to use multiple IT software systems for recording personal identifiable data and producing statistical information
13. Confident ability in negotiation and influencing skills