Post-mortem examinations will no longer be required for those who die in Scotland of the coronavirus as the nation prepares for the storm already stretching our NHS to reach full force.
The Crown Office taken action under the emergency powers in the Coronoavirus Act 2020 to ease the burden faced by the NHS as the UK moves towards predicted peak levels of infection and death.
Normally, patients who die in hospital have a post-mortem to establish beyond doubt the cause of death.
But with hundreds of coronavirus deaths daily in the UK, the burden on hospital mortuaries and pathologists would become impossible to manage.
Scotland’s most eminent pathologist, Tony Busuttil, emeritus professor of forensic medicine at Edinburgh University, said: “Without post-mortems, we can’t really say for sure what has gone on and why the patient has died and if we are to combat the new virus, we first have to understand its effects.”
