SENDING OF BODY TO DUNEDIN

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22105, 29 May 1937, Page 21

SENDING OF BODY TO DUNEDIN

“NOTHING IRREGULAR IN PROCEDURE” WELLINGTON HOSPITAL BOARD’S REPORT (PRESS ASSOCIATION TZLSCKAV.) WELLINGTON. May 28. Following the death in the Wellington Hospital on December 21, 19% of a male person, and complaints that the body had been sent to the Otago Medical School in Dunedin without the relatives or friends of the man being advised, the chairman tMr J. Glover* submitted a special report to a meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board. The report was received without comment. The report read as follows: jßie body was removed to Dunedin for anatomatical examination. The man had no relatives in New Zealand, and had no friends so far as the hospital officers then knew. By section 31 of the Medical Act. 1928. provision is made for the examination of such bodies. It was only after the body had been removed to Dunedin that a friend called and it was at once arranged that the body should be returned and buried in a plot in the Karori cemetery which the deceased haa bought. The friend, though notified, did not attend the funeral. . “Mr A. W. Croskery was invited to attend upon the committee set up to deal with his complaint against the hospital officers. He was also invited to state if the date of the proposed meeting was suitable to him. Mr Croskery replied that he would not attend as he had other business. He made no suggestion that he desired to attend on another date. . , , “The committee examined the acts relevant to the whole matter, and finds that there was nothing irregular or improper in the procedure taken. The deceased’s friends, though invited to attend the committee meeting, failed to do so. The funeral charges were not excessive in the opinion ra the committee, and were duly authorised by the deceased’s trustee, who. in fact, arranged for the funeral. “It may also be mentioned that the statement that the hospital made a habit of sending bodies to Dunedin tor examination can best be answered by the fact that an average of not more than one body a year has been sent m recent years.”