VAD brings changes to ‘cause of death’ reporting

One feature of end-of life-care that has already changed is to the form that reports a patient’s cause of death.

From Tuesday, 31 January 2023, there is a new Cause of Death form that the Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) Registration Office requires doctors to complete when certifying a death. The introduction of the form coincides with the availability of VAD in South Australia.

The new form is included in the PDF below. VAD-related questions are included in Part 4 on page 4.

Changes in the new form

While most content remains unchanged, the form has been changed to:

• include questions to elicit the information required from a medical practitioner under section 84 of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 at the death of a person who is the subject of an assisted dying permit
• include more information about deaths that must be reported to the Coroner
• re-order and re-format the content of the form
• allow the form to be completed electronically
• allow for the doctor’s electronic signature to be added to the form
• enable uploading of the form to a BDM webpage.

When to use the form

The form must be used for all deaths that must be reported to BDM, including but not limited to deaths through VAD.

In the case of a perinatal death (a live born child dying within 28 days of birth) or a stillbirth, a Medical Certificate of Cause of Perinatal Death form should be completed.

Completing the form

The form can be completed digitally by typing your responses in the required fields or by hand in the same way you have done in the past. BDM will accept a digital signature from the doctor completing the form if the form is completed digitally.

Submitting the form

If completing digitally, once you have saved your digital signature to the form click on the 'submit' button located at the bottom of page 5. When you click on the submit button you will be directed to save the form to your device and then directed to the upload link to send the completed form to BDM.

If completing by hand, submit the completed form to Births, Deaths and Marriages using the upload function atwww.sa.gov.au/bdm/doctors and clicking on the ‘Start Now’ button.

Obtaining a copy of the form

An e-copy of the form can be accessed by emailing BDM at registrations.bdm@agd.sa.gov.au.

Please contact Births, Deaths and Marriages on 131 882 or email registrations.bdm@agd.sa.gov.au if you have any questions.