Medical Examiner Officer

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust; Tees Valley; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is expanding its Medical Examiner Officer team to scrutinise deaths across our trust and wider community. The post supports the Medical Examiner in reviewing death circumstances and will serve as a contact for bereaved families, healthcare professionals, and the coroner.

The role requires high integrity, empathy, and excellent interpersonal skills, with training and development opportunities available.

Qualifications

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Work as part of a team to aid medical examiners in overseeing the death certification process for all deceased patients in the organisation and wider community.
• Establish circumstances of individual patient deaths by preliminary review of medical records and sourcing additional details for scrutiny by the medical examiner.
• Assist in highlighting cases for assessment by the Structured Judgement Review team (SJR), CDOP, Clinical Governance and LeDeR teams.
• Maintain awareness of diverse user needs to ensure equality across groups defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.
• Discuss likely content of medical certificate of cause of death with relatives and communicate sensitive information with support from the Medical Examiner and Lead MEO.
• Ensure relatives' concerns are addressed promptly and referred to appropriate support services such as Patient Safety or Patient Experience.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Empathy

Communication

Bereaved support

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

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 Batchelor'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.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust have come together to form University Hospitals Tees. As a result, post holders may be required to work across sites within both organisations.

Across University Hospitals Tees, our ambition is to be the best place to work, ensuring we have the right staff in the right roles at the right time to deliver outstanding patient care and experience.

We are committed to supporting our staff through an inclusive and supportive working environment, offering health and wellbeing initiatives, staff benefits, and opportunities for personal and professional development.

We support the 'Making Every Contact Count' approach to behaviour change in the promotion of health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Carol Alexander Job title: Patient Safety Operational Email address: [e-mail] Telephone number: 01642 624097