A health procedure includes dental, medical, surgical, diagnostic or other health-related procedure, including anaesthetic or other drug.
Deaths relating to health care include deaths due to a failure to treat or diagnose, and clinical or medication incidents and errors. Refer to the Information for health professionals PDF, An inquest must be held for a death in care if the case raises issues about the care provided to the deceased person. Deaths in custody must be reported to the state coroner or deputy state coroner and an inquest must be held. A death occurring in the course of or as a result of police operations may include those that occurred as a result of policing activities, for example:.
A coroner also has jurisdiction to inquire into suspected deaths, also known as missing persons. Reporting a death Who must report a death? Types of reportable deaths Unknown identity Even if nothing about the death is suspicious, the death of a person with unknown identity must be reported to a coroner unless the identity can be established with enough certainty to register the death.
The reporting of death will be processed upon receipt of the required documents. You may be called for an interview if further clarification is required.
An acknowledgement letter or email will be issued once the processing is completed. Documents Required You will need to provide original documents and official translations for documents in languages other than English , as well as copies of the documents for ICA to retain. Longer-than-average waiting times are to be expected on the following peak times: Monday, Friday, Saturday School holidays The day before or after a public holiday.
In most cases, a post mortem will be carried out and the Pathologist will comment on whether the death is considered natural or unnatural. This can lead to delay in releasing the body for burial or cremation. If the death is clearly natural after post mortem, then the coroner might conclude his investigation without holding an inquest, but if there are questions or issues the Coroner needs to look at, then he will carry out further investigations and an inquest will be arranged.
Coroners are sympathetic to families, but the language and procedure of an inquest can be confusing. The purpose of an inquest is to establish who has died, and when, where and in what circumstances — meaning how the death occurred.
The Coroner will be looking to establish the facts and the purpose of the inquest is not to determine any criminal liability such as whether any road traffic offences, health and safety offences or any other offence such as manslaughter may have been committed or civil liability where someone could be to blame for the death such as potentially negligent medical treatment, health and safety breaches or negligence by other drivers in road traffic accidents.
However, during the course of the inquest, the Coroner will often investigate issues which are relevant to potential criminal or civil liability, and often evidence can be heard which can be used later in a civil or criminal case.
In practice this means that there will be a more detailed investigation, and a jury will usually hear the evidence with the Coroner. There are a number of conclusions available to the Coroner and these include natural causes, drug-related, industrial disease, neglect, unlawful killing, suicide, accidental death and misadventure. A conclusion of neglect does not have the same meaning as negligence in a compensation claim, for instance in relation to medical treatment provided.
The meaning of neglect has since been expanded a little, but it is still a rare conclusion and is not often used by Coroners even in circumstances where there may have been issues regarding the medical treatment provided to the deceased. There is no formal definition of natural causes, but it is generally seen as the normal progression of a natural illness which has led to death, with or without any significant intervention.
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