A CORONER has described the pathology service as “overworked and understaffed” and says the coroner system is the “Cinderella of the public service”.
The Coroners Society of Ireland had made representations to the Departments of Health and Justice for extra resources for pathology services to cut delays but to no avail, South Tipperary coroner Paul Morris said yesterday.
He urged the families of people who died suddenly to write to their TDs about the “unsatisfactory service” in which pathologists had to work.
He was speaking at the inquest into the death of a man who sustained a head injury in a fall at his home in Thurles. Oliver Hoare (56) died in November 2009, but the inquest could only be held yesterday because of the time it took to receive the postmortem report.
Mr Morris said it was “very unfair” that Mr Hoare’s family had to wait so long to get answers.
“We are the Cinderella of the public service,” he said of the coroner system, adding that he was not blaming pathologists for the delays. “They’re overworked and understaffed but we’ve made submissions that the laboratory staff if they were paid overtime to come in on a Saturday . . . I would have got the report within about three or four months.”
Pathologists were “very, very conscious” of the coroners’ concerns, he said. “They know it can be easily solved on the ground if we get the co-operation from the powers that be in Dublin. To date all representations over the last decade have been met with silence and no reaction at all.
“To date the Department of Justice and Department of Health, when we make these representations, say that’s the business of the other department. We get nowhere. That’s the reaction we’ve got – letters fall into black holes and under desks.”
Gardaí told the inquest at Clonmel courthouse into Mr Hoare’s death that they were satisfied it was an accident.
Mr Morris apologised to the Hoare family for the delay in holding the inquest.
“I’m very conscious of the upset and trauma that delays like this can cause families and that’s why I’m speaking out today. It certainly might not do any harm if you register your own dissatisfaction with the experience, and you can freely quote what I’m saying to your local TD or whoever you wish to make representations about the unsatisfactory service that’s built into the system at the moment.”
He said the pathologists were “with me” on this issue.
Mr Hoare was found on May 18th, 2009, having fallen in his home and sustaining a head injury. He spent time at South Tipperary General Hospital, Cork University Hospital and in a nursing home while in a vegetative state, before dying on November 1st, 2009.
His death was the result of bronchial pneumonia, secondary to the head injury suffered in the fall.