Medical Examiner Officer

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust; Stockton-on-Tees; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job description

We are expanding our team of Medical Examiner Officers to enable scrutiny of all patient and community deaths.

The Medical Examiner Officer supports the Medical Examiner in scrutinising the circumstances and causes of death.

In addition, they are a point of contact and source of advice for relatives of deceased patients, healthcare professionals and coroner 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.

We welcome applications from candidates educated to Bachelor’s degree level, or evidence of study/equivalent practical experience at an advanced level; this might include nursing and/or other clinical experience.

Please note, candidates must have completed the mandatory e-learning MEO core training modules (free of charge) prior to starting in the post.

Although currently delivered between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday, this is subject to change as the service develops and may include evening and weekend working.

• Please note this post will be closed early once a sufficient amount of applications have been received.

To work as part of a team to aid medical examiners in their responsibility for overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation and wider 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 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).

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.

To discuss likely content of medical certificate of cause of death with relatives of deceased and in all cases, collect additional information. This may include the need to communicate sensitive information and offer explanations but would be fully supported by the Medical Examiner of the day and Lead MEO.

To ensure any concerns raised by the relatives are dealt with in a timely manner and forwarded to the appropriate support service such as Patient Safety or Patient Experience for further investigation or input.

At North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust our main priority is, and always will be, to provide safe and high quality care to our patients every day; the kind of care we would want for ourselves and our loved ones. We want our organisation to be the best place to work with the right staff, in the right roles, at the right time, to ensure we deliver exceptional patient care and experience. We will support staff through providing an inclusive and supportive workplace with health and well-being initiatives, staff benefits and opportunities for personal and professional development. Staff recognition is very important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Star and Team of the month, colleague recognition, a note of thanks, Managers Awards, Shining Stars and Service Awards.

We recruit for values and Together we are North Tees & Hartlepool.

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Claire McReynolds Job title: Lead Medical Examiner Officer Email address: [e-mail] Telephone number: 01642 383912.