Death, Dying and Bereavement

Following the release of a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) letter from the Scottish Government in September 2022, the guidance for doctors completing Medical Certificates of the Cause of Death (MCCD) and its quality assurance regarding the use of abbreviations has been changed. The list of abbreviations can be found in the updated CMO guidance at Appendix 4 - please click here to view the document.

Our educational resources for doctors on completion of the MCCD on the Support Around Death website have been amended accordingly to reflect this change.

The reasons for using abbreviations are:

• Those terms which are well known by clinicians and the public and do not cause confusion
• Those with characters more than that can be accommodated on the electronic MCCD form and where it is an accepted abbreviation in the WHO ICD-11 classification

 Accepted abbreviations are:

• HIV - human immunodeficiency virus infection
• AIDS - acquired immune deficiency syndrome
• COVID 19 Disease or SARS-CoV-2- Coronavirus disease or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
• CREST - calcinosis, Raynaud phenomenon, oesophageal dysmotility, sclerodactyly, and telangiectasia syndrome
• CADASIL - cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy syndrome
• CARASIL - cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy syndrome
• SCID - severe combined immunodeficiency
• IgG – Immunoglobulin G
• IgA - Immunoglobulin A
• IgM - Immunoglobulin M

This module is primarily intended for doctors who are working in general practice in Scotland and may need to deal with sudden or expected deaths in the community.

Before starting the module, it might be helpful to review one or more of these resources:

• Reporting deaths to the procurator fiscal
• Management of deaths in the community

The module should take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

This module does not cover completion of the medical certificate of cause of death itself. This topic is covered in another learning module.

Note: You will need to register for a free Turas account to access this module. Your progress will be recorded and will be available to verify your course completion within your NHS Board area. The downloadable completion certificate at the end of the module is available for insertion into your personal learning record.