Commentary on Sections Review of medical certificates of cause of death Section 8: Review of medical certificates of cause of death
26.Section 8 provides that the medical reviewer must review the certificates of cause of death referred under section 24A of the 1965 Act or those referred to the medical reviewer under section 4 (provided they are not rejected as vexatious under section 4 subsection (3)).
27.Subsection (2) describes the conduct of a review. Medical reviewers may review the medical records of the deceased, discuss matters with the certifying doctor and make other enquiries as they consider appropriate. This might include speaking to other persons who the medical reviewer considers may have relevant information about the health of the deceased, such as a member of the deceased’s family, a carer or a nurse and, possibly, (arranging to) view the body before coming to a view as to whether the medical certificate of cause of death is in order.
28.Subsections (3) and (4) provide that medical reviewers must come to a view on whether the given cause of death is a reasonable conclusion and that other information in the certificate is correct.
29.Subsection (5) allows the Scottish Ministers to make further provision regarding the conduct of reviews in regulations.