Medical Certification Of Cause of Death (MCCD Scheme)

The scheme of Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD) was introduced in the country under the provisions of Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969. Section 10(2) of the Act empowers the State Government to enforce the provision relating to MCCD in specified areas taking into consideration the availability of medical facilities. Section 10(3) of the Act provides issuing a certificate of the cause of death by the medical practitioner who has attended the deceased at the time of death. The data on cause of death contained in the certificate serve many purposes: they help in assessing the effectiveness of public health programmes and provide a feed-back for future policy and implementation. They are essential for better health planning and management and for deciding priorities of health and medical research programmes Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD) Scheme was a Centrally Sponsored Scheme until 2018-2019 run by Registrar General of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi, Government of India. From 2019-20 the scheme is a Plan Scheme. In Kerala the scheme is presently implemented only in four Corporations viz. – Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam and Kozhikode and in Alappuzha Municipality. The scheme envisages the collection of data relating to all deaths in medical institutions in the above said areas having facility for in-patient treatment. The medical professionals attending to the deceased at the time of terminal illness has to fill the data on causes of death in the prescribed Form-4. In addition there is another Form-4a relating to non-institutional death which are available in the concerned local bodies (Municipalities/Corporations).Both these forms have been designed by World Health Organization.

The Deputy Health Officers are entrusted with the collection of Form -4 from medical institutions and Form -4a from local bodies and to give codes to the disease that results to death. These causes of death are tabulated according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) coding. It is the World Health Organization which reviews the system of International Classification of Diseases(ICD). The statistics on medically certified causes of deaths has been tabulated as per the National List (ICD –10, modified according to Indian conditions). The post of Deputy Health Officers is now held by the Medical Record Librarians of Department of Health Services who had undergone training in ICD-10 coding. Presently there are 5 posts of DHOs in the MCCD scheme .The scheme covers 150 hospitals having in-patient facility in 5 centres. Name of center No. of hospitals reporting in MCCD scheme