City could run out of space to store bodies within next 10 years Rise in homelessness partly to blame, says council
BIRMINGHAM’S underpressure mortuary service will not have enough room to store bodies in ten years’ time, a councillor has warned.
The claim was made after it was revealed the number of deaths referred to the city coroner has increased by 21 per cent since 2014 to more than 100 cases a week.
The city’s growing homelessness problem was said to be one of the reasons contributing to the rise.
The city council’s coroner’s and mortuary service has a statutory duty to establish the cause or circumstances of a person’s death if it was violent or unnatural, if the cause is unknown, they died in custody, or where a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard is in place.
The council is also obligated to provide storage for bodies when a post mortem has been ordered by the coroner.
The number of deaths notified to the Birmingham coroner has increased year on year from 4,284 in 2014 to 5,203 in 2017.
Last year’s figure represented 44 per cent of all deaths in Birmingham and Solihull.
Cllr Mike Leddy (Lab, Brandwood), on the council’s licensing and public protection committee, said: “For trend purposes I think we do need to look at this a lot closer.
“Because it is a cost, it’s a cost to everyone in Birmingham.
“We don’t want to see bereaved families hard done by, but are we going to be in a position in ten years at the rate this is increasing, of being able to fulfil our duties to bereaved families across the spectrum in the release of bodies and so forth?” He added: “We need to investigate further because at this rate in ten years time we are not going to have facilities to store the bodies.” The number of formal inquests taking place has also increased annually from 141 in 2014 to 241 in 2017. Despite this, for the last two years, the council has managed to complete 93 per cent of hearings within the required six months – against a target of 95 per cent. Joyce Springer-Amadedon, head of bereavement services, said the council was considering opening another coroner’s court in Solihull to cope with demand.
She explained there was a range of reasons behind the increase in referrals and said: “The reasons for the increase in death referrals to the coroner are very complex and to be fair we don’t know all of the reasons.
“We do know that for example there have been increases in people who die who don’t see a doctor within 14 days of their death, those are automatically referred to the coroner.
“In some cases GPs are not clear about the reason for the deaths so they refer those to the coroner.
“We know about the increase in the number of people on the streets in terms of the homeless, we know that some of those get referred automatically to the coroner because there is no GP involved.
“So there are a range of reasons, and we are not absolutely sure about all of the reasons but there is a significant impact on the coroner’s court.”