The case in summary: The capacity at the forensic medicine department in Oslo is blown up. This leads to dead bodies being stored in a container outside, because the cold storage is full. The number of autopsies has increased, and they are unable to remove everyone in time. It is difficult to recruit people to work as forensic medicine, and there is a desire for forensic medicine to become its own specialty. The Minister of Health and Care has asked the Directorate of Health to look into whether it is possible to create a specialization within forensic medicine. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. A white refrigerated container stands right outside the Rikshospitalet in Oslo. Inside this, they put corpses that have been autopsied. Because the cold storage inside is mostly full. It was meant as a temporary solution. But due to challenges with capacity, it must remain standing. The employees who work here think it is on the verge of being undignified. – We touch on some boundaries, which we as professionals do not like, says autopsy technician, Lars Tomas Lien. Lars Tomas Lien says it affects him who works with this on a daily basis, that they have to use such backup solutions to store the dead in a proper way. Photo: Morten Waagø / news According to the chief medical officer, Arne Stay-Pedersen, they have the capacity to have 30 dead people on hold, and 30 that have been autopsied. The container gives them 12 extra places, and it is in use almost all the time. Can have major consequences Already this summer, concerns were reported about the capacity of the department for forensic medicine at Oslo University Hospital. In a letter to the Attorney General, they wrote that the situation was very urgent. Among other things, they carry out autopsies on behalf of the police. But they piled up, and they can’t take them all away in time. – The situation is serious. We have capacity challenges, we have recruitment difficulties, and we feel that we are not reaching enough. We don’t get to do as good a job as we would like to have done, says senior physician, Arne Stray-Pedersen. Arne Stray-Pedersen works as a senior physician in the department of forensic medicine at OUS. The job entails, among other things, performing autopsies on dead bodies, on behalf of the police. Photo: Morten Waagø / news He has also been out in Dagens Medisin with colleagues from other parts of the country, they believe that understaffing and increasing the number of assignments is a predicted disaster. Bergens Tidende has mentioned that those at Gade’s institute in Bergen also experience great work pressure. Because the number of autopsies is increasing. In 2023, they autopsied almost 1,500 bodies a year at Rikshospitalet. About 500 more than five years ago. It took a long time before they discovered murder. In space Christmas in 2023, a man was found dead on his property in Flisa. The police did not suspect at the time that it was anything other than a natural death. Later, the autopsy showed that the man had been killed. Stray-Pedersen says that cases where there is no suspicion of anything criminal are not given priority, and they can lie for many days. – We become a plug in the system, and we don’t want to be that. When an investigation is first carried out, it will be carried out thoroughly. But the consequence of it taking time before it is done can be big. – Short of time One of the problems the superior points to is that there are too few who can carry out the autopsies. In addition, it is difficult to recruit people to work as forensic doctors. He has long wished for forensic medicine to become its own speciality. To make it a more attractive profession. – We feel in the professional environment that it has taken a very long time, and we have had a bad time. We have been through a generational change with many very experienced colleagues who have retired. It takes many years to replace them, he says. Has given assignments to the Directorate of Health The Minister of Health and Care says she has asked the Directorate of Health to see if it is possible to create a specialization in forensic medicine. – We are all keen that these investigations maintain as good a quality as possible. That is why I have given an assignment to the Directorate of Health to standardize this competence, says Ingvild Kjerkol. She says that this is something that the justice sector and the health service together must find out what is right. Kjerkol points out that there is a shortage of senior doctors in several disciplines, so she cannot, for the time being, answer whether there are plans to create a separate specialty within forensic medicine, as Stray-Pedersen would like, but that is subject to consideration. There is a risk that murders will not be discovered. Last summer, the police were asked to make an additional assessment before they asked for an autopsy. Stray-Pedersen feels that they have done that. Arne Stray-Pedersen says it is urgent to put measures in place to be able to recruit more people into the profession. Photo: Morten Waagø / news But he says that it is terribly difficult for the police to prioritize even harder than what they are already doing. – They must then decide, in the event of an unnatural death, whether this should not be investigated. And with the consequence that we don’t discover things. He says that they have a couple of such cases a year, where they discover at an autopsy that it may be a case of murder, which was not known until the person concerned was autopsied. If these are not sent for autopsy, there is a risk that murders will not be discovered. – I think we should not allow that. Hello! Hello, I have written several cases about legal certainty, including Jon who thinks he has been wrongly convicted. Do you have thoughts about the case you have just read, or suggestions for other cases I should look at? Please contact. Signal: 92858483
ttn-69
Lika piles up – have to put dead bodies in containers outside
