Medical Examiner Officer

Working for our organisation

The Medical Examiner (ME) Service

The Medical Examiner Service Is An Independent Service Working Under The Direction Of The Department Of Health And Social Care, Which Aims To

• Strengthen safeguards for the public by providing robust, systematic and independent scrutiny of all deaths not referred directly to the Coroner; provide intelligent analysis and system level reporting of concerns found during scrutiny; and ensure that appropriate deaths are referred to HM Coroner;
• Improve the quality of death certification by providing expert advice to doctors based on a review of relevant health records;
• Avoid unnecessary distress for the bereaved by answering questions about the certified cause of death, the care given, or those that arise from unexpected delays when registering a death.

Medical Examiners are senior doctors who undertake independent scrutiny of deaths in order to establish an accurate cause of death and identify cases where the circumstances surrounding that death require further investigation.

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Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Skills required for this role

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to liaise with colleagues across ME Offices over the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) area, multidisciplinary teams of doctors and nurses, bereaved families, and Coroners' and Registration services
• Strong administrative and computer skills with good attention to detail
• A good working knowledge of medical terminology and clinical understanding is essential
• Experience in clinical or bereavement care, working with people in sensitive and emotional situations
• Excellent time management skills, with the ability to work with competing demands and changing priorities
• A commitment to personal development and the development and maintenance of a highly successful Medical Examiner Service across BNSSG.

The Medical Examiner Officer role is a highly responsible, challenging, and involved role, and will therefore also require a dedicated and driven applicant.

Applicants must have undertaken the mandatory Royal College of Pathologists’ Medical Examiner e-learning modules (available here: https://www.rcpath.org/profession/medical-examiners/train-to-become-a-medical-examiner-officer.html). Once in post, Medical Examiner Officers will undergo formal training appropriate to the role, as provided by the Royal College of Pathologists and via completion of a training programme portfolio and competence assessment, which must be completed within 12 months of starting in post. The role requires continuous training as part of a lifelong learning role and continuous professional development.

The successful candidate(s) will be primarily based at the Community Medical Examiner Office in Frenchay. The role will require multi-site working and travel to other sites in Bristol and Weston to provide cover across the system, dependent on staffing and the location of cases.

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Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Educated to degree level/equivalent working knowledge in a related field

Skills

Essential criteria

• Competent in the use of IT software systems and handling sensitive personal identifiable data

Desirable criteria

• Experienced user of NHS digital clinical and patient administration systems

Knowledge and experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working with bereaved families or in a clinical setting with patients and relatives
• General knowledge of clinical/medical terminology

Desirable criteria

• Working knowledge or experience of the Medical Examiner system
• Experience of working in a healthcare setting with multi-disciplinary teams across organisational boundaries

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We hope that you will decide to join us and become part of this exciting journey, helping us to shape our future together.

As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them. Anonymous information will be used from your application to ensure we’re meeting our pledge.

The Trust is committed to investing in and caring for all our staff. We will support you in maintaining and improving your health and wellbeing, as well as your career development through management and training support - developing exceptional people for exceptional careers.

BFT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.

To comply with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 all applicants must be able to speak fluent English to an appropriate standard which will be assessed at Interview.

If you require sponsorship for a visa to work in the UK, to avoid disappointment, please check to ensure you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

By applying for this post, you are agreeing to Bristol NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Please be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.

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Important

Please note that if you apply for a position with this Trust, you may be contacted via Trac or via email. This includes invites for job interviews. We therefore recommend that you regularly check your Trac account and email accounts. We may also contact you by texting the mobile number, if provided, on the application form.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore, please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification

Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.

As a guide interviews should usually take place within 3 weeks of the closing date.

When providing employment reference details, please provide correct work-related email addresses so references can be sought promptly when we are looking to progress your application. Your referee must all be known to you in a line manager or professional lead capacity.