About the Medical Examiner programme

Medical Examiner is an elearning programme commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and delivered by the NHS England elearning for healthcare programme (elfh) and the Royal College of Pathologists Medical Examiners Committee.

Access to this elearning programme is free although registration is required for proof of completion of the elearning resource (medical examiners and medical examiner officers).

The elearning programme is made up of 85 elearning sessions covering topics related to the new medical examiner role and system. Each elearning session will take approximately 20 to 30 minutes to complete and once registered, a user can download a certificate of completion which records a user’s activity to date.

As part of the elearning programme, a set of 24 core elearning sessions have been identified which users must complete prior to appointment as a medical examiner. The 24 sessions are now available to work through and can be accessed via the NHSE elfh hub. Once registered on the medical examiner programme, the core sessions can be found in the folder entitled Medical Examiner – Core Learning Resource.

The remainder of the elearning programme (61 elearning sessions) are a resource for reference.

On accessing the medical examiner programme, users will note that a Medical Examiner Library of resources is also available. Whilst this resource will prove useful to anyone interested in the programme, the library content should not be relied upon to comprehensively reflect the medical examiner system from September 2024.

The programme supports medical examiners, medical examiner officers and those involved in death certification in England and Wales. This course will help to deliver the majority of the essential training required for medical examiners and medical examiner officers.

The training modules will train medical examiners in conducting independent medical scrutiny of cause of death, in providing advice on the process of referral to the coroner and, where invited, in providing medical advice to coroners themselves.

The legislative framework for implementing these important reforms is included in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and The Medical Examiners (England) Regulations 2024

Programme background

In response to a number of public inquiries, most notably the Shipman Inquiry (third report), Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry (vol 2) and the Morecambe Bay Investigation, the Government has reformed the process of death certification in England and Wales.

These reforms include the recruitment of medical examiners and medical examiner officers across England and Wales. The role of the medical examiner will be to conduct independent medical scrutiny of cause of death in all non-coronial cases.

The Medical Examiner elearning training programme will deliver much of the training required for this new working role. There is also be face-to-face training managed by the Royal College of Pathologists.

The Medical Examiner elearning training programme is made up of eight modules with 85 elearning sessions in total. Each session will take about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

The elearning resource is primarily aimed at medical examiners and medical e examiner officers and registration will be required for proof of completion.  There are also general modules which can apply to other parts of the death certification system such as coroners, registrars and funeral directors.  Please note these are not essential modules as part of the training for coroners, registrars and funeral directors and are for information only.

How to access

The Medical Examiner programme is currently free to anyone who has an interest in the new working role. In order to gain access to this programme, prospective users simply need to register by selecting the Register button below.

Register >

To view the Medical Examiner programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View >

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Medical Examiner programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.