Mortuary move criticised by Panel
Concern about proposals to move all Coroner post-mortems to the Public Mortuary in Flax Bourton has been expressed by Bath & North East Somerset Council's Wellbeing Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel.
Currently, deaths in hospital that occur in Bath and North East Somerset which require a post-mortem are held at the Royal United Hospital, Bath. If the proposals go-ahead, it will mean that all post mortems would be moved to Flax Bourton. Whilst the RUH could retain facilities for bereaved families to see their deceased family member prior to the transfer of the deceased to Flax Bourton, in certain circumstances the bereaved family may have to travel further than is the case at present if they wished to see their family member whilst in Flax Bourton awaiting a post mortem.
The Panel was also concerned about the impact on the deceased patient storage facilities at the RUH as the Coroner service no longer intends to pay for certain types of cases.
Councillor Vic Pritchard (Conservative, Chew Valley South), Chair of the Panel, said, "We are concerned about the impact these proposals would have on bereaved families in our area and the overall viability of the Royal United Hospital facilities for the deceased. Although we recognise the proposals save money, the impact on people has not been properly considered and the Panel is asking for further work on these aspects before the Coroner service moves ahead on these plans."
After discussing the report in detail with representatives from Bristol City Council and staff from the RUH the Panel made the following resolution:
- The Panel rejected the report presented at the meeting
- The Panel asked for a new report which will encompass full Equality Impact Assessment that gives full consideration of the RUH full catchment area
- The Panel asked for longer consultation process. The Panel did not welcome that the consultation process started just before the Christmas period; and
- The Panel expressed their concern about the sustainability of the RUH facilities should the Coronary provision be transferred to Flax Burton Public Mortuary.
The Panel's request will be considered by the HM Coroner for Avon in early February, although the local authority, nor anyone else, may legitimately dictate to the Coroner how they shall carry out their judicial functions which include where to hold a post mortem.
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Comments
by witness1
Friday, February 03 2012, 10:17PM
“It is suggested that this is an attempt by the ill-judged Flax Bourton facility, backed by Bristol Council, to recoup some of its costs by shutting down local facilities and that the consultation process is irrelevant. The last paragraph is interesting: "The Panel's request will be considered by the HM Coroner for Avon in early February, although the local authority, nor anyone else, may legitimately dictate to the Coroner how they shall carry out their judicial functions which include where to hold a post mortem."
Editor - where did this paragraph come from? Was it from the legal advisors to Bristol Council or from HM Coroner for Avon?
The Coroner needs to have sufficient power to be independent and to make findings which could be uncomfortable for the Government or local authorities in the pursuit of truth but they must not abuse their power to make or allow decisions which disadvantage the relatives of people whose death comes to their attention. It took many many years of complaints and censure of the previous Avon Coroner, Paul Forrest, including criticisms by the High Court http://tinyurl.com/6vvlzs5 until, ultimately his suspension and sacking by the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor [thisisbath passim http://tinyurl.com/6qqtbvb] before his allegedly despotic rule came to an end.
Witness hopes that his successor, Maria Voisin, will stand up to her advisors and council and act in the interests of the population which she serves, (although, as it was made clear in the final paragraph, she is not answerable to them) and to resist the seductions of power (to use the favourite phrase of Mr. Forrest) "direct" people and local authorities to bend to the will of the Coroner.
Centralisation of autopsies in Flax will be a major emotional and financial blow to the citizens of BANES, will lead to loss of resilience of the service and should be resisted.”