A ministerial announcement in June 2022 and subsequent letter from NHS England in July confirmed the plan to implement the statutory Medical Examiner System from April 2023.
Medical Examiner Offices have been established in all acute trusts and London practices should expect to be contacted by the Medical Examiner Office at their local trust(s) in the next few months. Note: those based in pilot areas should have been contacted already. Interim arrangements have been made to allow Medical Examiners to legitimately access patient records for the purposes of their role, however when the Medical Examiner System is on a statutory footing, it is expected that they will be added to the list of persons with a right of access to patient records in the Access to Health Records Act (1990).