1. Glenn Taylor Hampshire County Council
Medical Examiners
a local authority perspective
LRSA Conference Dec 2012
Glenn Taylor
Hampshire County Council
Hampshire Scientific Service

2. “I’m in a room full of people and no one notices me!”
Seen as a local authority tax
Variations in costs/charges between authorities
Additional burdens directive - Reconciliation of costs
Quality assurance
To quote the new Chief Coroner:
“It is my purpose as Chief Coroner to provide leadership for the coroner system, to implement and develop reform, to create a more coordinated and accountable system, all with a national consistency and quality of standards and approach”.
“Parliament has made its decision and I shall, of course, work within those parameters”.
Hampshire Scientific Service

4. Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton - excludes Isle of Wight
Frimley Park Hospital share ME with Surrey?

5. Hampshire Scientific Service
Solo or in concert?
Total Deaths
ME FTE
MEO FTE
Doctors etc FTE
Portsmouth and SE Hants
6128
2.0
3.1
0.8
Southampton and SW Hants
4714
1.5
2.4
0.6
Central Hants
2478
1.3
0.3
NE Hants
2513
For example 0.8 ME equates to approx 32 hours cover per week, in NE Hants I’ll need to consider the two hospitals
Numbers of deaths based on calculation for illustrative purposes only
Hampshire Scientific Service

6. Hampshire Scientific Service
Issues
How will we recover money – informant?
Will I really need to rent offices in 5 hospitals when a central office would be more effective and efficient?
Will COs and MEOs co-habit?
Do the numbers stack-up? (ME etc)
Will the process change when medical records are available electronically?
Long-term impact:
on Coroner’s workload
Numbers of reported deaths are likely to fall by ~20-25%
Form 100B cases are likely to rise by ~9%
Numbers of inquests are likely to rise by ~35%
NB additional complexity of inquests
on Pathologist’s workload
Numbers of PM investigations to increase by ~21%
Hampshire Scientific Service

7. Hampshire Scientific Service
Thank you Comments and Questions
Hampshire Scientific Service