The Preliminary Notice of Death (PNOD) is required for deaths that occur on and after 15 December 2024.
The Preliminary Notice of Death is a notice sent to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages advising that someone has died. The PNOD contains a subset of the information on a certificate of cause of death.
This notice to the Registrar-General ensures that cause of death information is received directly from the practitioner and provides a second source of information about a death.
The PNOD is required from 15 December 2024.
Any medical practitioner or nurse practitioner who completes a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (HP4720) or Medical Certificate of Causes of Fetal and Neonatal Death (HP4721), must also complete a PNOD.
Death Documents will automatically generate and send a PNOD to the Registrar-General if the HP4720 or HP4721 certificate is completed online.
For practitioners using paper HP4720 and HP4721 certificates, an additional online PNOD form will need to be completed and emailed to the Registrar-General.
All deaths certified by a health practitioner need to be notified to the Registrar-General within 3 working days of the certificate of cause of death being supplied. A notification is not required for deaths referred to the coroner, or for stillbirths.
The health practitioner should log in to Death Documents to complete the HP4720/HP4721 certificate of cause of death for their patient who has died. When the death document is submitted an electronic PNOD will automatically be sent to the Registrar-General. No additional action is required.
The Preliminary Notice of Death is available on the Department of Internal Affairs website and the Death Documents website.
Preliminary Notice of Death — Department of Internal Affairs
If the certificate of cause of death was completed on a paper form the health practitioner must also complete a PNOD form and email it to the Registrar-General.
The fields on the PNOD form are a subset of those on the cause of death certificate. You will need to copy the required information from that certificate into the equivalent fields on the PNOD.
You will need to provide the name of the deceased, their date of birth, date of death and place of death. You will need to complete some details about yourself, the cause of death fields relevant to the type of medical certificate (HP4720/HP4721) and sign the form electronically. You can complete the PDF from completing, including signing, in Adobe Acrobat Reader for Windows or Mac. Or, pint it off and sign it by hand. If you sign by hand you will need to scan the document and attach to an email to BDM.
You will be able to click a link at the end of the form which will open an email with the email addresses populated. You will then need to attach the form and send the email to Births, Deaths and Marriages. The email address to send the form to BDM is PNOD@dia.govt.nz
Health New Zealand will also be copied in at the following address NHIidentity@tewhatuora.govt.nz