Ordering and retaining medical certificates of cause of death (MCCDs)
Guidance for GP practices, hospitals, hospices and medical examiner offices on how to order MCCDs and what to do with completed MCCDs.
Applies to England and Wales
The current medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) was introduced as part of the statutory medical examiner system on 9 September 2024, along with updated guidance for medical practitioners completing an MCCD in England and Wales.
Ordering MCCDs
MCCDs must be ordered from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).
If you have not yet registered for the NHSBSA MCCD ordering service, please do so now to avoid any delays in getting MCCDs.
Register for the NHSBSA MCCD ordering service
If you have already registered, you can order MCCDs through the online ordering portal.
Retaining the completed MCCD
Many GPs, hospitals, hospices, care homes and medical examiner offices scan the completed MCCD before emailing it to their medical examiner office, with many medical examiner offices also scanning the completed MCCD before sending it to the register office. You must securely store the paper copy of the completed MCCD and any partially completed MCCDs until the medical examiner has confirmed the cause of death and sent the completed MCCD to the registrar.
Once the medical examiner has confirmed the cause of death and submitted the completed MCCD to the registrar we recommend that the original paper MCCD is retained for a month and then securely destroyed. There is no requirement to retain the document long term.
In England and Wales, GPs, hospitals, hospices and medical examiner offices must keep completed counterfoils for 2 years in line with NHS England’s records management code of practice and NHS Wales’s records management code of practice 2022.
Old MCCDs
You should securely destroy unused booklets of the MCCD that were in use before 9 September 2024.
For partially used booklets, you should remove and securely destroy the unused MCCDs, leaving the counterfoils only.
In England, GPs, hospitals, hospices, care homes and medical examiner offices must keep completed counterfoils for old MCCDs for 2 years before destroying, in line with NHS England’s records management code of practice.
In Wales, the equivalent guidance is the NHS Wales records management code of practice. This sets out the requirements for the retention, storage and destruction of health records, including those related to death.
Practice safeguards
All blank MCCDs must be securely stored. For audit and security purposes, you may also wish to keep a record of the serial numbers of all blank MCCDs within each pad held by your healthcare organisation.
Off-site use
If the attending practitioner feels the need to take blank MCCD forms away from the healthcare site, they should only take a small, limited number.
To help with tracking lost or stolen blank MCCDs the attending practitioner or healthcare organisation should record the serial numbers of the specific MCCDs taken off site.
MCCDs must remain in the direct physical control of the attending practitioner at all times, such as zipped inside a professional bag, and never left unattended in a vehicle.
Stolen MCCDs
If you become aware that blank MCCDs have been stolen, you must take immediate action to prevent fraudulent use of the serialised certificates.
Immediate actions to take
If you become aware that blank MCCDs have been stolen, you should:
- Report the theft to the police and obtain a crime reference number for your compliance and audit logs.
- Inform local registrars and medical examiners by:
- telling the local medical examiner office that physical certificate stocks have been compromised, ensuring strict oversight on any upcoming death certifications for the practice
- alerting the General Register Office and the local register office and if known, giving them the serial numbers of the stolen blank MCCDs so they can flag and reject any fraudulent submissions.
- Notify NHSBSA by emailing mccd@nhsbsa.nhs.uk with the serial numbers of the stolen booklets or forms, if known.
- Notify NHS authorities by:
- logging the incident as a security and/or information governance breach through your practice’s internal reporting system and informing the practice’s internal Caldicott Guardian or Data Protection Officer
- contacting the local integrated care board governance team or NHS England regional contacts.