Medical Examiners Service

The Medical Examiner service was introduced to increase understanding and give peace of mind to families, as well as improve learning and patient safety by providing a review of care.

Service details

The service is run by Medical Examiners and Medical Examiner Officers. They answer three questions:

What caused the death?
Should the coroner be informed of the death?
Was the care before death appropriate?

They answer these questions by:

Looking at the medical records.
Talking with the patient’s doctor to fill in the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD)
Talking with the patient’s family so that they can ask questions or raise concerns.

The team review all deaths, except those that need to be referred to the coroner.

Royal Surrey hosts the service, but it is independent and impartial.

Who is eligible for the service?

The service is available to help families to navigate the process of registering a death.

When needed, medical examiners can formally ask the healthcare team to review the patient’s care.

How to access the service?

Following the death of a loved one, please call the Medical Examiner's office on the next working day.

You will need to give them the informant details. An informant is usually the person who will register the death. You will also need to tell them which funeral directors you are using.

The officer will advise you about the next steps of registering a death.

Meet the team