Stopford are pleased to be working alongside a number of registration services to include a new optional question and report on the ethnicity of deaths occurring during COVID-19. This addition is available as an optional integration for the existing telephone appointment system, and will aim to assist local authorities monitor deaths during this period and the communities they are affecting.
With recent news putting a spotlight on how patients from BAME communities were at a disproportionately higher risk from Coronavirus, service leaders have requested the feature be made available to ensure more data is available for analysis and to inform future decision making at both local and national level.
With the function enabled, those registering a death will be able to voluntarily input the ethnicity of the deceased during the appointment booking process via a drop-down or free text field, with the details being automatically recorded in a report for use by both the registration services and the council’s public health team. Passed on by the informant, the function will allow the services to collect unbiased, accurate data on the ethnic background of those passing during this time.
This additional question and report will be available for free upon request as part of our Telephone Appointment Booking system for death registrations. If you would like to add the voluntary ethnicity question to your booking process for reporting, please contact for further details.