Association of Anatomical Pathology Technology
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Major delays to national deaths review policy
A national scheme to improve safety with closer scrutiny of deaths is seeing major delays, with a large majority of areas missing its planned go-live date, HSJ has learned.
NHS Improvement told HSJ that only a “handful” of acute trusts so far had a hospital “medical examiner” in place. They are meant to oversee and scrutinise deaths in hospital which are not subject to an inquest, so there is more transparency about and learning from problems.
Ministers previously said a national examiner service would be implemented “no later than April 2019”, and a consultation by the Department of Health and Social Care made clear the system was due to be operating in acute hospitals from this month.