Medical Certificate
Regular doctor visits as you age
Going to the doctor regularly can help speed up the process of issuing a medical certificate cause of death in a few important ways:
- Clear medical history: A doctor who has regularly treated you is familiar with your conditions, making it easier to determine the likely cause of death without further investigation.
- Reduced need for referral: When the cause of death is well documented and expected, the doctor can usually complete the certificate directly, avoiding delays caused by referrals to a coroner or medical examiner.
- Recent clinical contact: If a doctor has seen you within a relevant time frame before death, they are legally and clinically better placed to certify the death promptly.
- Faster arrangements for family: Timely certification allows funeral arrangements, burial or cremation, and legal processes (such as probate) to proceed without unnecessary delay.
In short, regular medical care helps ensure that when death occurs, the certification process is smoother, quicker, and less stressful for loved ones.
Who can complete the Medical Certificate?
Usually the doctor who treated the person during their final illness or who saw them recently before death. In hospitals, this is often a hospital doctor; in the community, it is usually the person’s GP. The doctor must have sufficient knowledge of the person’s medical history to confidently determine the cause of death.
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.
If there has been no recent medical care, the doctor may be unable to certify the death, and it may need to be referred to a coroner.
Frequently Asked Questions
When a baby dies younger than 28 days old, there is a different process that needs to be followed. Depending on how and when a baby dies, there are different requirements for legally registering the details of birth and death. Read more…
If the death is expected and the doctor is familiar with the patient, it is often issued within 1–2 days. Unexpected or unclear deaths can take longer. Delays may occur if the doctor did not know the person well, there hasn’t been recent medical contact, records need reviewing, or the death must be referred to a coroner.
Once registered, basic death information becomes part of the public record, though access rules vary.
In New Zealand, “old age” can only be used in limited circumstances and usually requires the person to be of advanced age with no other identifiable cause. Deaths often result from a sequence of medical events. Listing them shows how one condition led to another.
It includes the immediate cause of death, underlying conditions that led to death, contributing factors, and basic details about the deceased.
No. The cause is the medical reason (e.g. heart failure). The manner (natural, accident, suicide, homicide) is usually determined only if a coroner or medical examiner is involved.
Some preliminary arrangements can be discussed, but burial or cremation usually cannot proceed until the certificate (or coroner’s approval) is issued.
Providing medical history, medication lists, and contact details for the person’s regular doctor can help avoid delays.
Accidental Deaths
Coroner referrals are required if the death was unexpected, unexplained, violent, accidental, occurred during surgery, or if the cause of death is unclear. The coroner may order further investigation, including reviewing records or conducting an autopsy.
The coroner must first release the body and authorise the next steps before burial or cremation can take place. If an autopsy is performed to determine the cause of death, the coroner issues the necessary documentation once this is complete.