Brodrick exhumed again SIR,-Professor Bernard Knight writes (7 August, p 393), "Under the present law a doctor need not report any death to the coroner." Does this imply that it is only customary and not mandatory for a hospital doctor to follow the so called "24-hour rule" which stipulates: (a) reporting to the coroner deaths of patients which have occurred within 24 hours of admission even when the cause of death is obvious; (b) reporting to the coroner falls which occurred within 24 hours prior to death but which obviously did not contribute to the cause of death.
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