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 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:
1. To provide the bereaved with explanation, transparency and early opportunity to ask questions or raise concerns.
2. To improve accuracy and quality in all aspects of the medical certification of the cause of death.
3. To ensure or assist with appropriate referral to the Coroner.
4. To safeguard the public through consistent scrutiny of all non-coronial deaths.
5. To support clinical governance in learning and improvement.
The Medical Examiners Office is located in the Bereavement suite at Hillingdon Hospital. This enables the Medical Examiners to scrutinise every inpatient death 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:
1. To act as an intermediary between the bereaved and clinicians to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patient’s death.
2. 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.
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