PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Antibiotics: Drug Resistance (6 January 2017)

There is currently provision for recording resistant infections on death certificates. For example, guidance on recording deaths from MRSA was issued in 2005 by the then Chief Medical Officer. However, it is often the case that by the time someone dies they may have a number of diseases and complications of illness or treatment. It is, therefore, a matter of clinical judgment to decide whether a condition present at or just before death was a primary or secondary cause of a patient’s death.

The World Health Organization is currently working on a revision (ICD 11) of its diagnostic coding system ICD 10. This is due in 2018 and will have a more comprehensive coverage of types of antimicrobial resistance.