Greek Reporter — Coroners Association Chief Grigoris Leon told the 18th Pan-Cretan Medical Conference in Rethymno, Crete, that six in 10 death certificates issued in Greece contain serious errors.
Most of these errors on certificates are made on the cause of death. The description and recording of the cause of death is often erroneous Leon said and called for vigilance and better training to rectify the current situation.
The cause of death record “may be meaningless in bringing back the person lost” Leon said but they are important in terms of gathering mortality data for Greece. Death statistics are important because they are the way in which public health can be better monitored. The way in which death is recorded can affect the lives of people in society as the causes of deaths are used to determine public health policy and research. Hence, wrong death records can inevitably cause more deaths by sending researchers in the wrong direction.
