Medical Examiners and Death Certification

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Wednesday 18th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness is quite right to highlight this point. Medical examiners are not involved in stillbirths, because the cause of death is before the point of birth. However, there is clearly a need for the involvement of coroners. I will look into the detail of that. I can tell the noble Baroness that the Government are taking the issue of stillbirths seriously. A new perinatal mortality review tool is looking at that and it is integrated into the learning from deaths scheme now going on in the NHS.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, this is a very welcome initiative, but in view of the incredible shortage of medical staff in the NHS, is the Minister confident that there are sufficient staff to cover it? Are the Government looking at other ways of making staff available—for example, people may be brought back from retirement—to handle it in the initial years?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

That is a very good question because we are talking about a greater workload. The pilots and the early adopters have demonstrated that it is possible to do this with existing staff loads. As it is rolled out across the country, there may be a need for additional staff. I reassure the noble Lord, and indeed others including bereaved families, that any staff who are used will be registered practitioners and would be regulated by the GMC.