CLINICIAN AND THE CORONIAL SYSTEM - ABILITY OF CLINICIAN TO RECOGNIZEREPORTABLE DEATHS

Objective-To assess the ability of clinicians to recognise deaths whic h require referral to the coroner. Design-Postal questionnaire consist ing of 16 fictitious case histories, 14 of which contained a clear ind ication for referral to the coroner. Setting-Large teaching hospital. Coroner's office. Subjects-200 clinicians from general medical and sur gical firms and senior staff of the local coroner's office (two corone r's officers and the two deputy coroners). Main outcome measures-Numbe r of correct assessments on questionnaire. Results-The mean recognitio n score for the clinicians was 9.11 (range 3-14) with no difference be tween the clinical grades. All of the coroner's senior staff recorded maximum recognition scores of 16. Conclusions-The study highlights sev eral features of the coronial system which are poorly understood by cl inicians and provides the basis for an initiative to improve the medic olegal education of all clinicians.