An NHS trust in England has withdrawn its own guidance for doctors recording the cause of death after a legal challenge by @GoodLawProject

The guidance said there was ‘no requirement to write COVID 19’ on medical certificates of cause of death. #COVID19

For over a week @Channel4News has been reporting on whistleblower allegations that some deaths linked to #Covid19 are being attributed to other causes of death on death certificates.

https://twitter.com/c4ciaran/status/1251445665084903427?s=21 https://twitter.com/c4ciaran/status/1251445665084903427

@GoodLawProject did not want to name the NHS Trust in question– but we approached the Trust for a response.

It’s important to understand that doctors certify a death by completing a medical certificate of cause of death – an MCCD.

This particular NHS trust had issued its own guidance related to the #COVID19 pandemic.

It said that ‘pneumonia’ or ‘community acquired pneumonia’ were an ‘acceptable’ cause of death on that certificate.

And: “There is no requirement to write COVID 19 as part of the MCCD.”

This matters because @ONS produces a more complete death toll for England and Wales – once a week.

If #COVID19 isn’t on a death certificate that death won’t be counted as a COVID19 death by the ONS.

Although it may be recorded in daily deaths data submitted to NHS England.

The unnamed NHS trust is now reviewing all deaths recorded over an 18 day period in April.

In a statement the NHS Trust said: ‘The claims being made are emphatically wrong on all of the key points, but to avoid any possibility of misinterpretation we have ensured that all staff are referring to the national guidance instead.’

In legal correspondence seen by @Channel4News the Trust told @GoodLawProject that whilst they don’t accept the ‘entirety of the challenge,’ they do ‘concede’ they should withdraw the guidance.