Your responsibilities

On this page:

• Your responsibilities

• Who can complete an MCCD

• If the person who died is not your patient

• If you are unavailable when your patient dies

Your responsibilities

When a person dies, a doctor or nurse practitioner who has been involved with the person’s care, must:

• complete a medical certificate cause of death (MCCD) if the death is due to natural causes like illness or age-related decline

or

• report the death to the coroner if it appears to be unnatural, suspicious, due to an accident or violence, is medically unexpected, or the person is in official custody or care.

Detailed guidance on how to complete an MCCD is available at Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health(external link)

It is important that you complete an MCCD or report the death to the coroner as soon as possible. Any delay has an impact on whānau and friends of the deceased and their ability to make funeral arrangements and ensure culturally important practices are conducted.  

Who can complete an MCCD?

The consultant or specialist in charge of a patient’s care is responsible for ensuring that an MCCD or report to the coroner is completed as soon as possible after the patient’s death. This responsibility can be delegated to another appropriate member of the clinical team that cared for the patient before they died.

In general practice, the doctor or nurse practitioner who has been involved in the care of a patient can complete the MCCD or report a death to the coroner.

You do not have to have seen or treated a person recently to be able to complete an MCCD if their medical history and/or the circumstances around their death are enough to explain the probable or likely cause of their death.

If the person who died is not your patient

You may be asked to complete an MCCD for a person who is not your patient. This is allowed under section 46B of the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 as long as you are satisfied that the person died as a natural consequence of illness.

For any death that does not need to be reported to the coroner, you can complete an MCCD if:

• the primary doctor or nurse practitioner who has cared for the person during their illness is unavailable and unlikely to become available within 24 hours of the death or

• it is more than 24 hours since the death and the primary doctor or nurse practitioner has not completed an MCCD or reported the death to the coroner and has not refused to complete an MCCD and

• you have taken reasonable steps to consult with any other health practitioner who has cared for the deceased person and

• you have reviewed the deceased person’s medical records held by the doctor or nurse practitioner that last cared for them during their illness and

• you have considered the circumstances of the death and

• you have examined the tūpāpaku (body).

Note: there is an exemption to the requirement of viewing the tūpāpaku in certain circumstances in the aged residential care sector. For more information see the Cremation Regulations 1973: Exemption from Regulation 7(external link)

If you are unavailable when your patient dies

If your patient dies when you are unavailable (for example, on holiday), you do not always have to complete an MCCD or report the death to the coroner yourself.

Where possible you should promptly provide advice and relevant medical records to another doctor or nurse practitioner who may be able to complete the MCCD or report the death to the coroner if necessary.

It is recommended that doctors and nurse practitioners working in General Practice have contingency plans in place for occasions when they are not available when a patient dies. An example of a contingency plan might be asking another practitioner at your practice to complete MCCDs in your absence.