Medical Examiner Service

Information for the bereaved

The Medical Examiner Service has been introduced in England and Wales to increase understanding and peace of mind for families, as well as to improve learning and patient safety by providing a review of care.

Following the death of your relative/friend, the doctor who is completing the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death will discuss this with the Medical Examiner.

The Medical Examiner is an independent senior doctor who will review the relevant medical records to establish the cause of death and ensure that care was provided appropriately. They will direct the doctor to refer to the Coroner if further investigations are required.

Once the paperwork has been completed, you will receive a call from the Medical Examiner’s Office (based at Royal Derby Hospital) to explain the details on the certificate. During this call, you will be given the chance to discuss any concerns about the cause of death, or about the care the person received before their death. The Medical Examiner’s Officers can explain any medical language unfamiliar to you if this is needed. They will inform you that the relevant paperwork will be at the register office and following this call, you will be able to make an appointment to register the death formally.

If there are any concerns that need to be escalated following this discussion, this can be done by the Medical Examiner’s Officer, or they will provide you with the relevant contact details.

Click below for exciting news about our telephone service

Telephone update.

Telephone automated callback system

What is a telephone callback system?
Automated callback is a feature of our telephone system that allows a caller to choose to be called back rather than wait on hold in the call queue. When a receptionist becomes available, the system will call you back and when you answer, you will be connected to the receptionist.

How Do I Request a Callback?

Requesting a call back is easy and will allow you to keep your position in the call queue without waiting on hold.
Call our reception team on 0115 930 1105.

You will be presented with several telephone options which you can choose from -

Press option 1 If you would like to book an appointment or speak with our reception team.
Press option 2 If you would like to cancel an appointment.
Press option 3 If you are calling to request a home visit.
Press option 4 for any other enquiries or to speak to a secretary.

Only option 1 has the ability to register for an automated call back.

If you have selected option 1 you will be entered into the call queue and will be given instructions on how to log a call back.

When you have joined the call queue press 1 to register for a call back, you will then receive confirmation that your call back has been logged and will be able to end the call.

your position will now be held in the queue, when you reach position 1 our automated call system will ring you back and connect you with a member of our reception team.

Please remember if you have chosen a call back you will be in the queue from when you made the call if you call again the first call automatically gets canceled and the current call will be further back in the queue.

IMPORTANT -
• The callback system is not able to initiate a call back if your telephone number is anonymous or blocked.
• If you are unable to answer your telephone when the system is calling you back it will try again one more time after 1 minute.
• If your telephone or mobile goes to voicemail while we are calling you back because your mobile phone is switched off or not in signal range the receptionist will leave you a voicemail message instructing you to call us back at your next convenience.

Dear patients,

Due to staff shortages, we have had to make the difficult decision to prioritise some procedures held at the surgery, you may be asked to attend other clinics in the community for some services.

We have also had to temporarily suspend our travel clinic as our nurses are at full capacity, for more information on travel clinics click here

Travel Health - Old Station Surgery.

We would like to thank you for your understanding and support with this, and assure you we are working hard to resolve the situation.

The Old Station Surgery Team.

GPs Are On Your Side

If you have lost your family doctor, you are not alone. General Practice is broken. Help us fix it.

 You have probably noticed that something is wrong. Look at the difficulty you have in getting an appointment at your local surgery. When you do get through, it may not be an appointment with a GP at all. Have you lost your regular family doctor? You are not alone. The past decade has seen us lose far too many surgeries and thousands of GPs.

 General Practice is collapsing. Every practice across England is struggling to keep its doors open.

We value our patients. We know that most patients value us too, especially when they need us regularly. You know we can deal with most of your health problems, keep you out of hospital, and have your best interests at heart. The problem is with the mismanagement of the NHS.

Your GP is an expert in general medical practice – trained over 10 years to deal with complex problems, spot serious symptoms, and decide when you need specialist help at the hospital.

But did you know that your practice receives just £107.57 per year for each patient, whatever their health needs. That’s less than the cost of an annual TV licence.

It’s just 30p a day for every patient registered with us – less than the cost of an apple.

We believe general practice deserves a bigger slice of NHS funding so we can train and hire more GPs, deliver the services you require and make it easier for you and your loved ones to get appointments to see your GP and practice team.

GPs want the same things that you do. We believe nobody should struggle to see their family doctor.

General Practice should be as it once was – a familiar family doctor, offering continuity of care in a surgery full of friendly familiar faces within a safe building where you knew you would get the care you needed.

 How can you support your family doctor?

Talk to any election candidate who you come across

When candidates from the political parties come knocking on your door, ask them what they will do to save general practice. What will they do so you can see a GP in a modern local surgery?

Join the patient participation group at your local practice

Your local practice should have a patient participation group (PPG), which you could join to support the practice and influence the way they deliver local services. 

Ask your surgery receptionist for further information about the existing group or details on how you might start one up.

The National Association for Patient Participation has useful information too.

 General Practice has been broken. Help us fix it.

GPs Are On Your Side

Click the link below for more information

DDLMC - Advice on managing sickness in school children.

As a practice we are constantly looking for ways to improve our service.

We have recognised that we need to be able to offer more appointments, to enable us to do this we must be more proactive with late arrivals.

From June if you arrive more than 5 minutes late for your appointment the receptionist will ask the clinician if they are still able to see you or if you need to rebook  the appointment.

Thank you for your support.

From Fri 1^st March we will no longer be accepting sick/fit note requests over the phone. Please submit these online this can be done via our website using the Online Triage button  or via the NHS app using your smartphone. Did you know you can also order repeat prescriptions via the NHS app to learn more  https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app

**Update on the medical online triage trial

05.02.2024 

Following the successful trial of the medical online triage, from Monday 5th February, we are reintroducing the service. We will continue to monitor demand and capacity closely, with a view to expanding the access in the future. The number of requests will be managed according to our capacity on the day. Please keep checking the website for further updates

***Update on the medical online triage trial*

01.12.2023 - as our trial has finished the medical online triage facility will be now closed until re-launch in February 2024. Thank you to everyone who took part. 

Our trial is coming to an end and will close this Friday. We will audit the findings of the trial and we plan to have the medical side opened fully by early 2024. The admin side is still open 24/7 for any admin queries. For more information visit our website.

Dear Patients
Due to the demand and popularity of our online triage, we are looking to re-introduce the medical aspect of the system. This means that once again you will be able to contact us via our website regarding a medical matter. Currently, only administrative queries are received in this way.
However, as we learned from previous experience, we would like to do it in a more controlled and productive way. We understand that having a system that does not meet the expectations of our patients adds to the frustration (as previous survey results show) and therefore before we open it fully once again, we would like to iron out any possible difficulties before we re-launch it.
With this in mind, we will run a trial for 4 weeks, starting from Monday 6th November.
The option to submit your medical request will be open Monday-Friday from 6.00 a.m. and will close at 9.00 a.m. or once 20 requests have been received. Please head to our website www.oldstationsurgery.co.uk and select Online Triage or go to the messages section on the NHS app to submit your clinical query.
We will carefully review this system each week during the trial and make adaptations as needed. Once the trial is finished, we will audit it fully with the view of relaunching it at the beginning of February 2024.

Thank you for your support with this. OSS Team.