Medical Examiner inLewisham inLewisham PUBLISHED FRI 1 NOV 2024

Job Overview

Job Title: Medical Examiner

Division: Corporate

Care Group: Medical Director's

Band: N/A

Salary: Dependent on experience

Interview Date:

We are recruiting for a Medical Examiner who shares our ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best People and has the drive to take us forward, by ensuring that the Trust continues to be the first choice for patients and our staff.

The ME team consists of a lead ME and up to 11 other MEs. We are looking for 2 colleagues to provide 1 session of 4 hours each week based on a 42-week year. We particularly need cover for afternoon sessions - Mondays. You would be expected to offer sessions with a degree of flexibility to fulfil a rota. There is currently no commitment beyond office hours except for the MEs participating in the Out of hours cover for weekends and Bank holidays (optional). The job is based at University Hospital Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, but elements of the work will be possible remotely using electronic systems to scrutinise patient records and telephone calls to bereaved relatives and attending medical colleagues. Competence with electronic systems is necessary to review records and complete notes. Team working is important, particularly with other Medical Examiners and Medical Examiner Officers within the Team, Clinical teams, Coroners and Registrars. You should have up to date knowledge of medical practice and have completed the mandatory online learning by the time of interview and be in the process of registering for the face-to-face training with the College of Pathologists.

You must be currently registered with a license to practice with the GMC, have at least 5 years' experience as a fully registered medical practitioner and be currently practising or have retired in the last 5 years.

About us

Main duties

To ensure compliance with the legal and procedural requirements associated with the current and proposed reformed processes of certification, investigation by coroners and registration of deaths.

To scrutinise the certified causes of death offered by attending doctors in a way that is proportionate, consistent and compliant with the proposed national protocol.

To discuss and explain the cause of death with next of kin/informants in a transparent, tactful and sympathetic manner. It is anticipated that such discussions will be predominately conducted through telephone conversations where barriers to understanding information may exist.

To ensure that all users of the ME system are treated with respect and are not discriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.

To maintain comprehensive records of all deaths scrutinised and undertake analysis to provide information to the National Medical Examiners office.

To participate in relevant clinical governance activities relating to death certification including audits, mortality review processes and investigations regarding formal complaints about patient care.

To support the training of junior doctors in their understanding of death certification and promote good practice in accurate completion of MCCDs.

To work with medical examiner officers (MEOs), delegating duties as appropriate.

To engage with lead ME and lead MEO for the region.

To adopt a collaborative working relationship with other MEs by sharing experiences and expertise to support peer learning and set uniform standards of service delivery.