New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CORONERS ACT 1980 - SECT 12B

12B Medical practitioner must not certify cause of death if death is reportable to a coroner

(1) A medical practitioner must not give a certificate as to the cause of death of a person for the purposes of notification of the cause of death under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 if the medical practitioner is of the opinion that the person died in any of the following circumstances:

(a) the person died a violent or unnatural death,

(b) the person died a sudden death the cause of which is unknown,

(c) the person died under suspicious or unusual circumstances,

(d) the person died having not been attended by a medical practitioner within the period of 3 months immediately preceding his or her death,

(e) the person died while under, or as a result of, or within 24 hours after the administration of, an anaesthetic administered in the course of a medical, surgical or dental operation or procedure or an operation or procedure of a like nature, other than a local anaesthetic administered solely for the purpose of facilitating a procedure of resuscitation from apparent or impending death,

(f) the person died within a year and a day after the date of any accident to which the cause of his or her death is or may be attributable,

(g) the person died while in or temporarily absent from a hospital within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1990 and while the person was a resident at the hospital for the purpose of receiving care, treatment or assistance,

(h) the person died in circumstances that are examinable as referred to in section 13A (Deaths in custody etc examinable only by State Coroner or Deputy State Coroner),

(i) the person died in circumstances that are examinable as referred to in section 13AB (Child or disability deaths examinable only by State Coroner or Deputy State Coroner).

(2) Despite subsection (1), a medical practitioner may give a certificate as to the cause of death of a person if the medical practitioner is of the opinion that the person:

(a) was 65 years of age or older, and

(b) died in circumstances other than those referred to in subsection (1) (b), (c), (d), (e), (g), (h) or (i), and

(c) died after sustaining an injury from an accident, being an accident that was attributable to the age of that person, contributed substantially to the death of the person and was not caused by an act or omission by any other person.

(3) Subsection (2) does not apply if the accident concerned occurred in a hospital or nursing home.

(4) If a medical practitioner certifies the cause of death of a person in pursuance of subsection (2), the certificate must state that it is given in pursuance of that subsection.

(5) A medical practitioner who is prevented from certifying the cause of death of a person because of this section must, as soon as practicable after the death, report that death to a police officer.