In brief
Bereaved families will have the right to inspect the medical forms of a dead relative before cremation, under Ministry of Justice proposals. A consultation, Cremation Regulations Consolidation and Modernisation, has been launched featuring recommendations which aim to prevent a repeat of the murders by Harold Shipman. Dame Janet Smith’s Third Report Certification and the Investigation of Deaths by Coroners in the Shipman Inquiry said many of the forms completed by Shipman were inaccurate. Had relatives been able to draw the medical referee’s attention to unexpected symptoms, Shipman might have been caught earlier.
