Cllr Tomás Sharkey
Councillor Tomás Sharkey has called for postmortem examinations to be carried out in local hospitals at the weekends.
At present no postmortems take place at weekends unless requested by the State pathologist but the Sinn Féin representative said this delay can also lead to funeral arrangements being pushed back, thus leading to additional grief for families affected by tragic deaths.
He said: “When the laboratory service in Louth County Hospital closed the postmortem work was also moved to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. As a rule post-mortems are not carried out in that hospital over the weekend unless the state pathologist requests it.
“In recent times I am aware that a number of tragic deaths took place on a Friday night / early Saturday. This meant that postmortems were not carried out until the following Monday morning and the families involved were delayed in receiving the remains home for a wake and funeral.
“This arrangement can cause stress and additional grief for families. It is not fair and should be addressed by HSE management. I have called for a review of the arrangements and expect that the merits of the request be taken on board.”
Talk of the Town 