Coronavirus: Death Certificates

(asked on 4th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to death certification on the operation of covid-19 data gathering.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 14th May 2020

In response to the provisions in the Coronavirus Act 2020 in relation to death certification, the General Register Office/Home Office and the Office for National Statistics published revised guidance to medical practitioners completing medical certificates cause of death (MCCD) for a period of emergency. Medical practitioners are expected to state the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief. This guidance confirms that COVID-19 is an acceptable direct or underlying cause of death for the purposes of completing the MCCD.

The causes of death mentioned on the completed certificate are coded using the World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The WHO has introduced two new ICD-10 codes for COVID-19, code U07.1 meaning a confirmed case, and code U07.2 meaning a suspected case. These are allocated according to the words used on the death certificate.

Reticulating Splines