When someone dies within a residential care home, nursing home or Hospice facility, the duty doctor will usually issue the next of kin with the Medical Certificate of the Cause of Death as soon as possible. When someone dies in a local community hospital or the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, staff will inform you how and when to contact the Patient Affairs or Bereavement Officer. You will be told how to obtain the medical certificate. It is the responsibility of the GP or possibly the 'duty' doctor to issue a medical certificate for people who die at home. The medical certificate records the principal illness which led to the person's death. It has to be signed by the doctor who was responsible for the patient when they died. Please read carefully both sides of the detachable slip on the medical certificate 'Notice to the Informant.'