Medical Certificate
A Medical Certificate of Cause of Death needs to be completed by a medical professional if a person who is older than 28 days dies by natural causes related to an illness.
This is a very important process as no one can be buried or cremated without a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.
Who completes the medical certificate?
If a person has passed away from illness or other natural causes, the doctor or nurse who has been caring for them will issue a Certificate of Cause of Death immediately after they have learned about the death. They can only issue the certificate if they are certain that the person has died from illness or natural causes.
If the nurse or doctor who attended to the person throughout their illness is not available within 24 hours of their death, another health practitioner can complete the certificate within strict guidelines. i.e. they will need to physically examine the body, understand their medical records and consider the nature of the person’s death.
The New Zealand Government has developed an online tool – Death Documents – to help medical professionals fill out necessary forms, like the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death, faster and easier. This helps the person in charge of the body to access these documents quickly, so preparation of the body for burial or cremation can take place.
What happens after an accidental death?
If a cause of death cannot be determined by the medical professional assessing the person who has died, they will not be able to fill in the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death and the coroner will be called, either by the medical professional or the police, if they are present.
The exception here is when a person over the age of 70 dies after an accident. The doctor or nurse can then issue a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death if they are certain that the accident resulted in physical problems linked to the person’s age and that the death was not suspicious or unusual and wasn’t caused by someone else.
What happens when a baby dies?
When a baby dies younger than 28 days old, there is a different process that needs to be followed.