Medical certification of cause of death in the General Hospital, Colombo.

To determine the accuracy of death certification by hospital doctors, all certificates of deaths issued for one month in the General Hospital, Colombo were studied. Only 97 (38%) of the 253 certificates were correctly recorded according to the internationally accepted criteria. The immediate, antecedent and contributory causes of death were not written in the correct place in 75 (30%) certificates, while unacceptable causes of death were found in 49 (19%). Abbreviations had been written in 13 (5%) instances. Death certificates had been issued without informing the coroner in 14 (6%) cases, which was irregular. The need for accurate certification of death for disease surveillance, research and planning is stressed.