Gauteng Health vows to make inroads in postmortem backlogs
The Gauteng Health Department says they are working to address the
backlog of postmortem reports.
Spokesperson for the department Kwara Kekana said on Tuesday that the backlog stands at over 10 000.
“There is currently a backlog of over 10 900 post-mortem reports in the province. And of those 2 308 are at forensic chemistry laboratory and the rest at the forensic pathology laboratories.”
ALSO READ: Mchunu sends stern warning to water polluters
According to Kekana, the turnaround times for conducting and producing post-mortem reports vary case by case.
“This is due to the complex nature of performing a post-mortem which involves various role players and the nature of each case.
“On average a post-mortem can take between 60-90 minutes to be conducted, while reports can take between four to six weeks per case.”
Kekana says the filling of all funded posts is a priority.
“There has also been a motivation for the review of the staff establishment and organogram in order to bolster the existing staff compliment to cater for the ever increasing Gauteng population and service demands.”
