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Salary An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the existing Medical Examiners Service in a newly created band 5 role.
The service is expanding at a rapid rate and will soon be covering all non-coronal deaths in East Kent. This role has been created to support the existing team and to offer administrative support to the Medical Examiners and Medical Examiner Officers.
The successful candidate will be responsible for liaising with external partners, Acute Hospital Doctors and Primary Care General Practitioners. They will be confident speaking to medical personal and understand the legal obligations when dealing with after death paperwork.
They will be expected to speak to bereaved families and advise them of the need for referrals to the Coroner and what this entails. Their caseload will vary on a day to day basis and they will be expected to manage this and prioritise their tasks accordingly.
To support the Medical Examiners and Medical Examiner Officers in their role in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death. To be a point of contact and source of advice for healthcare professionals, coroner and registration services.
To act as an intermediary between the attending doctors and Medical Examiners to establish and resolve any concerns relating to a patient’s death. Work with Medical Examiners to aid them in their responsibility for overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation.
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 assist in highlighting cases for assessment by the Structured Judgement Review team (SJR), Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP), Clinical Governance teams and the Learning Disability Review Teams (LeDeR).
To inform bereaved that their relative will be referred to the coroner for further investigation on approval by the Medical Examiner.
Maintain an awareness of the diverse needs of users of the Medical Examiner system to ensure equality to any particular group defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 695,000 people.
Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: ‘People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’.
We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called ‘We care’. It’s about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We’re looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.”
Be able to juggle conflicting demands, prioritise tasks and deal with queries as they arise.
Full compliance with secure handling of patient identifiable data is essential.
Contribute to and review departmental policies and procedures to reflect best practice in the delivery of a Medical Examiner system.
To have qualifications/skills in day-to-day operational/process management of a customer-facing service where users may have unpredictable and emotionally charged needs.
Highly evolved empathetic and self-awareness skills to deal with bereaved families who may have barriers to understanding information due to their grief or disability.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
To have an understanding of medical terminology that enables informed discussions about causes/circumstances of death with bereaved families, clinicians, coroner and registration service staff.
To be able contribute to the daily running of our three offices and escalate any concerns promptly to Lead MEO who has overall responsibility for the smooth running of the service.
Knowledge of the statutory process around death certification legal frameworks and how the Medical Examiner system aligns with other related organisations and NHS initiatives.
The ability to work in a highly pressurised, unpredictable environment where bereavement care is central to the service delivery.
Specialist knowledge of various faith groups’ funeral wishes/practices to enable respectful compliance with tight and specific timescales and procedures.
Computer literate to use multiple IT software for recording personal identifiable data.
This advert closes on Thursday 21 Mar 2024
