BMJ  2006;333:107-108 (15 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7559.107

Editorial

Reform of investigation of deaths

A draft bill on the coroner system misses important chances

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The UK government has recently published a draft bill for reform of the investigation of deaths in England and Wales by the coroner system.¹ A coroner is an independent judicial officer and must be a barrister, solicitor, or, currently, a medical practitioner of not less than five years' standing (the last qualification is abolished in the draft bill). This proposed legislation heralds many changes, several with implications for doctors (box). These are all sensible evolutionary changes that will lead to a more consistent, effective, and better managed service. There are several problems, however, that the draft bill does not tackle.

The draft bill fails to cover important recommendations made by a government review of death certification and investigation,² by the Shipman Inquiry (which followed the murder of more than 200 patients by general practitioner Harold Shipman),³ and by the UK Home Office.⁴ Moreover, it does not give detailed instructions . . . [Full text of this article]

Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 6TP
(rb14@le.ac.uk)

Monash University, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Southbank, Victoria 3006, Australia

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering • Commentary: Medicalisation of risk factors

Ray Moynihan, Iona Heath, David Henry, and Peter C Gøtzsche
BMJ 2002 324: 886-891. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Baker, R., Hurwitz, B. (2009). Intentionally harmful violations and patient safety: the example of Harold Shipman. JRSM 102: 223-227 [Full text]  
• Luce, T. (2007). Reform of the coroner system and death certification. BMJ 335: 680-681 [Full text]  

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>