New death certificate reforms will aid Jewish community

New changes to the death certification system in Britain — the first overhaul in more than 50 years — have been welcomed by the Board of Deputies.

The reforms, issued by the Department of Health and Social Care, will be rolled out in September. Essentially, the changes mean a speeding-up of the process immediately following a death, with the consequent advantage to the Jewish community of speedy burial.

Currently doctors are only able to issue a medical certificate cause of death (MCCD) if they have attended the deceased within 28 days before death. The reforms will mean that medical practitioners can complete this certificate — without which a person cannot be buried — if they have attended the deceased “in their lifetime”. The doctors can propose a cause of death “to the best of their knowledge and belief”.

Once the certificate is issued it then goes to a medical examiner, a senior practitioner, to complete it. After that the MCCD will be sent to the registrar, crucially without meeting a coroner at any stage in the process — unless there is a suspicion of death by unnatural causes.

Amanda Bowman, the Board’s vice-president, said: “We welcome the announcement from the government that the national roll-out of the new system for medical examiners will take place this September. The Board of Deputies has been at the forefront of aiming to ensure that the new certification process will be user-friendly for the Jewish community, liaising closely with burial societies from all denominations, including the strictly Orthodox, as well as the National Medical Examiner and key officials and teams from the Department of Health and Social Care.

“Until now, many religious families suffering a bereavement will have had to cope with additional trauma caused by the delay of the release of their loved one for burial; the new system should help surmount some of these obstacles.”

The tidying up of the death certification process means a win for the Jewish and Muslim communities, both of which seek to bury people as soon as possible after death. Too often there has been a delay in approval by coroners for release of a body — usually because of a backlog in the system and the number of cases with which the coroners have to deal.

Dr Suzy Lishman CBE, who is a former president of the Royal College of Pathologists and now senior adviser on medical examiners for the RCP, told Jewish News: “All medical examiners (ME) understand the needs of the Jewish community and the importance of ensuring that burials can proceed as soon as possible. A representative from the Board of Deputies speaks at the training day that all MEs attend.

“ME services put the bereaved at the heart of everything they do, and work closely with faith leaders and communities to make sure they meet their needs”.

Introducing the reforms, the Health Minister, Maria Caulfield, said: “Reforming death certification is a highly complex and sensitive process, so it was important for us to make sure we got these changes right.

“At such a difficult time, it’s vital that bereaved families have full faith in how the death of their loved one is certified and have their voices heard if they are concerned in any way.

“The measures I’m introducing today will ensure all deaths are reviewed and the bereaved are fully informed, making the system safer by improving protections against rare abuses”.

The minister told parliament that from 9 September 2024 it would become a requirement that all deaths, in any health setting that are not referred to the coroner in the first instance, are subject to medical examiner scrutiny.