Case study:

11 May 2010

Coordinated care from the Coroner’s officers within Medway Maritime Hospital

Key points

The presence of Coroner’s officers in Medway Maritime Hospital has allowed close collaboration with medical and nursing staff and ensured families are given as much help as possible in the immediate aftermath of a death.

The officers have been based in the hospital since 1992 – a development that was part of the upgrading of the mortuary and pathology area of the hospital.

The hospital provides support to the officers while Kent County Council, which funds the service, rents the offices from Medway Trust.

The arrangement allows officers to attend A&E during working hours.

If someone dies they can meet families in the office areas, accompany them to a viewing of the body and stay with them in the waiting area afterwards.

They can also intervene if there are difficulties in issuing the death certificate because, for instance, the GP has not seen the individual recently or is unavailable.

In these circumstances they can contact other doctors, such as the hospice doctors or hospital consultants, to get a certificate issued quickly.

This reduces the need for post-mortem examination and can spare the bereaved family further distress.

The officers are easily contactable by professionals in the community and can visit families at home, other community hospitals and in the nearby hospice.

They are also closely involved in the training of new doctors and nurses in the hospital, as well as seeing all new police officers, who are responsible for handling suspicious out-of-hours deaths.