Coroner condemns inquest delays

A CORONER was forced to send four families away from an inquest without details of their loved ones’' deaths because of delays of over six months in getting test results from the State Laboratory.

Coroner for County Kildare, Professor Denis Cusack, condemned the situation which he said was repeated around the country and put bereaved families through additional grief.

He pointed out that the Government had promised to address the problem three years ago but instead it was only getting worse. He said 5,000 of the 8,000 deaths in Ireland each year were referred for post mortem examination, leaving at least 20,000 close family members facing potential delays and added distress.

"“This is not a criticism of the State Laboratory staff. They are doing their best under very difficult conditions,” said Professor Cusack. “It’s a concern in relation to the resources being given to the State Laboratory to provide an adequate and timely service to the coroner’s service.”

Professor Cusack made his remarks at a sitting of the Coroner’s Court in Naas at which he heard that four separate inquests could not go ahead into three deaths that took place last May, and one last June, because toxicology results were not yet available.

Two other cases, involving patients of Naas General Hospital, were also adjourned because results were not ready but in these cases the delays did not arise in the State Laboratory.

Professor Cusack referred to the recommendations of a review of the national coroner service published in December 2000 in which the funding, staffing and equipping of the State Laboratory was to be overhauled as an “immediate step.” “Three years later there has been no improvement. There has been a disimprovement.”

Other “immediate steps” set out at the time were the provision of more paediatric pathologists so that bereaved parents were not left waiting to have their children’s bodies returned to them for burial, and reform of the 40-year-old legislation which still governed the coroner service.

The only penalty in the legislation for a witness who refuses to attend an inquest is a fine of an old fiver or €6.35. And coroners are restricted in their inquiries because they can only call one medical witness, invariably the pathologist, so no-one who treated the deceased while they were alive is heard.

The review also recommended the appointment of a director to oversee the service nationally. Professor Cusack said no such appointment had been advertised or made.

He noted that Justice Minister Michael McDowell had issued a statement last month saying he would bring in legislation to lift the restrictions on the number of medical witnesses and said he welcomed the Minister’s “renewed commitment.”

“That is a very welcome start from the minister. However, there were 110 recommendations in the report of December 2000,” he said.