Increased body count swamping forensics

Victoria is struggling to keep up with its rising body count, with forensic pathologists swamped by the demand for autopsies.

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine director Noel Woodford.

Victoria is struggling to keep up with its rising body count, with forensic pathologists swamped by the demand for autopsies.

While the state’s population increased by about 2.2 per cent last year, there was a 4.5 per cent increase in the number of death investigations during the same period, largely due to an ageing population.

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine director Noel Woodford said there was now an evaluation of the threshold for such investigations coming to his pathologists.

Deaths where an elderly person has broken their leg in hospital have already been targeted. Pathologists are not carrying out autopsies when the medical history could pinpoint a cause of death.

The institute, which examines deaths for the state’s coroner, is looking at other changes. Last financial year, the institute carried out 6405 investigations, up from 6129 the year before.

“I think it usually goes up by 2 or 3 per cent every year — that’s sort of the longer term,” Professor Woodford said. “It’s interesting that as the population increases, it also ages. That’s of concern to us as well. How will they impact upon the medico-legal — or coronial death investigation — system? What sort of processes are in place to ensure that those deaths, where necessary, are ­adequately investigated?”

He said “unexpected deaths” were to be referred to the coroner, but 50 per cent of the institute’s work turned out to be deaths from natural causes.

“That’s a pretty variable thing and we’re looking at that at the moment to work out how people actually interpret what ‘unexpected’ means,” he said.

Professor Woodford estimated the institute was short of five pathologists at the moment.

“That’s because of the increasing workload,” he said. “People are working at, and sometimes well above, capacity. There are internationally ­accepted standards, so I’m concerned that people don’t work over capacity because that has mental health effects as well.”