Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full time Band 5 Medical Examiner Officer (MEO) to join the Medical Examiner Service hosted by Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG).
The MEO role is part of the national implementation of the Medical Examiner Service in England and Wales, and we invite applications from individuals with a degree level education, equivalent knowledge or relevant experience.
You will be assisting the Medical Examiner in carrying out their duty of independent scrutiny of deceased patients' medical records, to review the care and ascertain a cause of death. In addition, you will communicate with the next of kin of deceased patients, healthcare professionals, coroners, and registration services.
The nature of the job is such that it demands high standards of integrity. It is essential that you have good interpersonal skills with the ability to show empathy and deal sensitively with bereaved families in highly emotive situations, whilst maintaining professional standards.
This post will primarily be based at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital however occasionally you will be required to work from Scunthorpe General Hospital as and when required to meet the needs of the service.
Main duties of the job
The purpose of this role is to support the Medical Examiners (ME) in their role of scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death and to be a point of contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare professionals, HM Coroner and North/North East Lincolnshire death Registration Services.
This service currently operates Monday to Friday core hours. This may be subject to change covering out of hours evening and weekend work when the ME system becomes statutory from April 2024.
The main duties of this post offers are:
- To act as a liaison between the bereaved, clinicians and external organisations to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patient's death.
- To work with Medical Examiners to aid them in their responsibility for overseeing the scrutiny and death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation and community.
- To establish the circumstances of individual patient deaths by performing a preliminary review of medical records to identify clinical and circumstantial information, sourcing additional details where required, for scrutiny by the Medical Examiner.
- To keep accurate records in accordance with local and national processes.
About us
We're a large organisation with three hospitals located in Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole. We also provide community services in North Lincolnshire. Our 6,500 members of staff care for and support a population of more than 400,000 people.
We encourage all our staff to innovate and adopt 'best practice' so we can deliver excellent care to our patients. We ask staff to live our values; kindness, courage and respect.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. You could be one of them.
To learn more about Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, and discover the unique benefits on offer to employees, view our latest videos, plus more, please visit our recruitment website at https://joinnlag.co.uk/
Should we receive a high volume of applications for this vacancy, the advert may be closed earlier than stated. To view a full job description and person specification please see attachments on this advert.
In line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Recruitment & Workforce team will use and hold your personal data for the intended purpose and in line with the Recruitment & Workforce Privacy Statement.
"We are committed to safeguarding the welfare of children/vulnerable adults and expect the same commitment from all staff and volunteers".
Please be aware that all newemployees starting work with us will be charged for the cost of their DBS check, if it is required for their role.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Communications and Key Working Relationships:
Internal to Trust
- Medical Examiners
- Hospital doctors and other healthcare professionals
- Medical Records
- Divisional Management Teams
- Trust Bereavement Service
- Clinical and Quality Governance Teams
- Infection Prevention Control
- Mortuary staff
- Management Accountants Bureau
- Community teams
- Pastoral and Spiritual care Team
- Specialty Teams - SUDIC Team (Child death), Safeguarding, Mental Health Lead.
External to Trust
- HM Coroner and officers
- Spiritual/Faith community leads
- Registrars of births and deaths
- GPs and practice staff
- Hospices
- Private care providers
- NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB)
- Bereaved relatives, carers, and executors/solicitors.
- Funeral Directors
- Regional Lead for ME system (Dr Graham Cooper as of July2023)
- Regional Medical Examiner Officer (Josephine Charlton as of July 2023)
- Humberside Police
The information to be communicated by the MEO will be sensitive and some situations may be highly charged, emotive and demanding. The MEO must maintain excellent communication skills with a high level of empathy when communicating with the next of kin.
The purpose and tasks of the Medical Examiner Officer Post are:
Analytical and Judgemental Skills
- To advise on the completion of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) by the clinicians and to ensure all appropriate deaths are reported to the coroner.
- To conduct a preliminary review to identify relevant information for the Medical Examiner to perform their duties efficiently.
- Expedite scrutiny of deaths where time is of the essence eg. Faith deaths and organ/tissue donation.
Planning and Organisational Skills
- To develop and maintain excellent partnership working with other MEOs to ensure consistency of service across sites as well as arranging/organising cover for planned absence, so that the Medical Examiners system continues to be supported.
- To manage the case load and progression of each case from death through to completion of registration or reporting to HM Coroner.
- To assist in managing cases for further investigation by the Trusts Learning from Deaths process, which includes identifying cases that may undergo Structured Judgement Review, Root Cause Analysis, or further review by Child Death Overview Panel or Learning Disabilities Review Team panel.
Responsibility for Patients
- To have contact with patient relatives, friends, and other bereaved contacts.
- To be responsible for communicating medical terminology in a sensitive and meaningful manner that is understood by the next of kin.
- To be aware of the diverse needs of users of the Medical Examiner system to ensure equality to all groups defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability. This particularly includes the needs of those with religious or cultural expectations surrounding death.
N.B. There will not be responsibility for clinical care in this post
Responsibility for Policy and Service Development
- To assist in the development, annual review and implementation of relevant policies linked to the work of the ME Office.
- To be involved in ensuring the service meets statutory requirements.
Responsibility for Financial and Physical Resources
- To be responsible for ordering and physical resources relating to the Medical Examiner system.
Responsibility for Information Resources
- To be proficient in the use of Microsoft Windows, including word, excel and PowerPoint as well as Microsoft Outlook
- To be proficient in the use of relevant digital information systems such as WebV, SystemOne, Ulysses incident reporting system as well as the Internal HUB.
- To abide by the Trusts Information Governance policies and to maintain appropriately secure passwords for the information resources and secure storage of any paper records.
Responsibility for Personal Development
- To assist with and undertake audits as part of Medical Examiner processes, as required
- Undertake mandatory training as a requirement of the role and to comply with Trust policies
- Undertake the RCPath MEO training portfolio
- Undertake all required E learning for Health ME modules within 6 months of starting role
- Attend RCPath face to face MEO training (this may be virtual)
We are committed to creating and maintaining a fair and supportive working environment and culture, where contributions are fully recognised and valued by all and staff feel empowered to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities. As employers we are committed to promoting and protecting the physical and mental health and well-being of all our staff. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution, supports us to be an Employer of Choice and ultimately enables our employees to support the effective care of our patients.
We strongly value the different perspectives and ideas a diverse workforce brings to deliver better outcomes for our patients. We welcome applications irrespective of peoples age, disability, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Communications and Key Working Relationships:
Internal to Trust
- Medical Examiners
- Hospital doctors and other healthcare professionals
- Medical Records
- Divisional Management Teams
- Trust Bereavement Service
- Clinical and Quality Governance Teams
- Infection Prevention Control
- Mortuary staff
- Management Accountants Bureau
- Community teams
- Pastoral and Spiritual care Team
- Specialty Teams - SUDIC Team (Child death), Safeguarding, Mental Health Lead.
External to Trust
- HM Coroner and officers
- Spiritual/Faith community leads
- Registrars of births and deaths
- GPs and practice staff
- Hospices
- Private care providers
- NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB)
- Bereaved relatives, carers, and executors/solicitors.
- Funeral Directors
- Regional Lead for ME system (Dr Graham Cooper as of July2023)
- Regional Medical Examiner Officer (Josephine Charlton as of July 2023)
- Humberside Police
The information to be communicated by the MEO will be sensitive and some situations may be highly charged, emotive and demanding. The MEO must maintain excellent communication skills with a high level of empathy when communicating with the next of kin.
The purpose and tasks of the Medical Examiner Officer Post are:
Analytical and Judgemental Skills
- To advise on the completion of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) by the clinicians and to ensure all appropriate deaths are reported to the coroner.
- To conduct a preliminary review to identify relevant information for the Medical Examiner to perform their duties efficiently.
- Expedite scrutiny of deaths where time is of the essence eg. Faith deaths and organ/tissue donation.
Planning and Organisational Skills
- To develop and maintain excellent partnership working with other MEOs to ensure consistency of service across sites as well as arranging/organising cover for planned absence, so that the Medical Examiners system continues to be supported.
- To manage the case load and progression of each case from death through to completion of registration or reporting to HM Coroner.
- To assist in managing cases for further investigation by the Trusts Learning from Deaths process, which includes identifying cases that may undergo Structured Judgement Review, Root Cause Analysis, or further review by Child Death Overview Panel or Learning Disabilities Review Team panel.
Responsibility for Patients
- To have contact with patient relatives, friends, and other bereaved contacts.
- To be responsible for communicating medical terminology in a sensitive and meaningful manner that is understood by the next of kin.
- To be aware of the diverse needs of users of the Medical Examiner system to ensure equality to all groups defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability. This particularly includes the needs of those with religious or cultural expectations surrounding death.
N.B. There will not be responsibility for clinical care in this post
Responsibility for Policy and Service Development
- To assist in the development, annual review and implementation of relevant policies linked to the work of the ME Office.
- To be involved in ensuring the service meets statutory requirements.
Responsibility for Financial and Physical Resources
- To be responsible for ordering and physical resources relating to the Medical Examiner system.
Responsibility for Information Resources
- To be proficient in the use of Microsoft Windows, including word, excel and PowerPoint as well as Microsoft Outlook
- To be proficient in the use of relevant digital information systems such as WebV, SystemOne, Ulysses incident reporting system as well as the Internal HUB.
- To abide by the Trusts Information Governance policies and to maintain appropriately secure passwords for the information resources and secure storage of any paper records.
Responsibility for Personal Development
- To assist with and undertake audits as part of Medical Examiner processes, as required
- Undertake mandatory training as a requirement of the role and to comply with Trust policies
- Undertake the RCPath MEO training portfolio
- Undertake all required E learning for Health ME modules within 6 months of starting role
- Attend RCPath face to face MEO training (this may be virtual)
We are committed to creating and maintaining a fair and supportive working environment and culture, where contributions are fully recognised and valued by all and staff feel empowered to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities. As employers we are committed to promoting and protecting the physical and mental health and well-being of all our staff. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution, supports us to be an Employer of Choice and ultimately enables our employees to support the effective care of our patients.
We strongly value the different perspectives and ideas a diverse workforce brings to deliver better outcomes for our patients. We welcome applications irrespective of peoples age, disability, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to Batchelor's degree level 6 or has equivalent working knowledge and experience in related field.
- Evidence to demonstrate a commitment to life-long learning and undertaking personal development opportunities.
Desirable
- Attended MEO training at Royal College of Pathologists.
Occupational Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with people in sensitive and emotional situations.
Desirable
- Experience of working in a healthcare setting with multi-disciplinary teams across organisational boundaries.
- Experience of participating in service change or improvement
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to Batchelor's degree level 6 or has equivalent working knowledge and experience in related field.
- Evidence to demonstrate a commitment to life-long learning and undertaking personal development opportunities.
Desirable
- Attended MEO training at Royal College of Pathologists.
Occupational Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with people in sensitive and emotional situations.
Desirable
- Experience of working in a healthcare setting with multi-disciplinary teams across organisational boundaries.
- Experience of participating in service change or improvement
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
