There is a shortage of forensic doctors in various police regions, including in Zeeland-West Brabant, to be able to do a postmortem in time. The situation is so dire that an emergency measure is being taken. That is what health minister Ernst Kuipers writes in a letter to the House of Representatives.
According to the minister, there is an “urgent and acute shortage” of coroners in the Zeeland-West-Brabant region, in parts of the eastern Netherlands, the central Netherlands, Amsterdam and The Hague.
The emergency measure means that in regions where there is a great shortage of forensic doctors, basic doctors, general practitioners, GGD doctors and other medical specialists can be temporarily deployed to investigate a non-natural death or a suspicion thereof.
This concerns deaths after, for example, falls in institutions or in the event of euthanasia, provided this has been reported in advance. For more complex cases such as suicides, accidents or crimes, the municipal coroner always comes himself. Because an autopsy must be carried out quickly, the emergency measure will be in effect for a year for the time being.
Thousands of autopsies a year
Forensic doctors perform 10,000 to 12,000 autopsies a year. This happens, for example, if there is alcohol or drug abuse, a traffic accident, suicide and after a crime. In addition, there are approximately 7,000 autopsies per year after euthanasia, to check whether the correct procedures have been followed.