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89
DEATHS NOT CERTIFIED.
Twelve deaths (compared with 20 and 10 in the two preceding
years) were returned as "not certified"—either by a registered
medical practitioner or by a coroner. The proportion of uncertified
deaths to total deaths was in Kensington, 0.4 per cent.;
in London, l.l per cent.; in England and Wales, 3.6 per
cent. None of the deaths uncertified in Kensington occurred
in the practice of unregistered male practitioners. Four
were registered on the information of midwives In three cases
information of the cause of death was supplied by medical men.
One person had been an out-patient at hospital, and in the
remaining four cases there appears to have been no medical
attendant. The cases were reported to the Coroner, who did not
deem it necessary to hold inquests. The causes of death, as
registered, were: in five cases diseases of heart and lungs; in
one case tubercular disease; in one, convulsions, in one, old age,
and in four cases premature birth.
The subject of uncertified deaths having engaged the attention
of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, the following
resolution was adopted:—
"That all cases of uncertified death should be reported by the local
registrar of births and deaths to the Coroner, who should, when there
is no prima facie ground for holding an inquest, direct such cases to be
investigated by a registered medical practitioner."
It had been suggested that the duty of making the proposed
investigation should devolve on the Medical Officer of Health as a
part of his ordinary work, but the Society did not adopt this view.
Of all the unsatisfactory arrangements connected with uncertified
deaths, the least defensible is that which makes the
Coroner's Officer de facto judge, in a doubtful case, whether an
inquest should be held. The Society adopted the following
resolution bearing on the subject:—
"That the present system of investigation of deaths referred to a
Coroner, viz., by an officer having no special qualification for the
discharge of the duty, is unsatisfactory."