Planned proposals to move all Coroner post-mortems to the Public Mortuary at Flax Bourton have been stopped after concerns were raised by the Wellbeing Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel.
Under the proposals, hospital deaths that occurred in Bath surrounding areas which required a post-mortem would have been carried out at the Public Mortuary at Flax Burton, rather than at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. The cross-party Panel highlighted concerns that 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 had 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 were 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.
As a result of comments received from the Panel and others during the consultation period, the Coroners service has decided to withdraw the proposals and continue to work with the RUH.
On behalf of the Panel, the Chair, Councillor Vic Pritchard (Conservative, Chew Valley South) said, “We are pleased that the concerns we raised about the impact these proposals would have on bereaved families in our area and the overall viability of the Royal United Hospital facilities have been listened too. We hope that the Avon Coroner and the RUH continue to develop a good working relationship that will help families in Bath and North East Somerset.“