KEY POINTS:
Wanganui Hospital's mortuary facilities fall short of Justice Ministry standards for autopsy services, pathologists have told the Wanganui District Health Board.
The pathologists work for Medlab Central, which signed a contract last week with the board to provide pathology services at the hospital starting on October 1.
Since August, bodies needing autopsies have been sent to Palmerston North as part of an interim arrangement with Medlab Central until the contract was agreed.
District health board planning and funding manager Tracey Schiebli said the arrangement could become permanent if the mortuary did not meet health and safety standards required under the contract with the Ministry of Justice.
Memo Musa, the board's chief executive, said Medlab pathologists had said that although the mortuary did not meet ministry standards for autopsies it was adequate for holding and storing bodies, identification processes and viewing before and after autopsies.
Mr Musa said the board's contract with the ministry required it to meet a number of standards, but the latest contracts for autopsies were likely to raise the bar even further.
"There may in future be a requirement to have portable x-rays, digital video and still camera and access to clinical databases and digital communication technology."
The mortuary at Wanganui Hospital is not at the level at which such requirements can be met, now or in the future," Mr Musa said. With a likely price-tag of as much as $2 million, but only 70 or 80 autopsies each year, the cost of a new mortuary would be hard to justify.
- NZPA
