Setting record straight on mortuary staff
YOUR article “R40m wasted on unaccredited DUT courses for mortuary staff” refers (5/3/19).
It seems that your reporter was given inaccurate information by the trade union and Department of Health spokespeople.
Provincial policy about the training of technicians was in place in 2010, but it has since been ignored by the department.
A course had been developed and it had been registered with the SA Qualifications Authority. Before it could be registered with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), the person who was overseeing forensic services left because of severe harassment and intimidation by trade union members.
The new head of department failed to pursue the registration with the medical body, and she also failed to implement policy that linked training to salary levels.
DUT was initially reluctant to register the workers because most lacked the requisite educational standards, but was persuaded to do so. Most of those who enrolled failed the module.
Trade union members, apparently in complicity with the then head of department and MEC, rejected further training. Public service salary categories are linked to levels of training, which most mortuary workers do not possess.
We also need to point out that only doctors and no others may actually work on bodies. The body should be removed intact but still within a body bag from refrigeration to the autopsy room by a technician, with any dissection by the technician being limited only to the opening up of the body, which is done only under the immediate and direct supervision and physical presence of a doctor.
Clothes should not be touched or removed until the doctor is present since they may provide important forensic evidence.
The only other handling of the body by the mortuary technician involves reconstructing the body after the post-mortem has been completed and its safe return to refrigeration.
No other handling of the body is permitted by anyone else but the doctor. Based on this minimal handling of the human body it is a requirement of the job of the mortuary technician that they be registered with the HPCSA.
Other mortuary workers are scribes who record what the doctors convey to them during an autopsy, but many do not have the skills to compile adequate notes. All of this information is contained in correspondence between the Medical Rights Advocacy Network and the Department of Health.
The department is to blame for the current state of affairs, for it was advised years ago to employ only staff with relevant qualifications.
There are people with various tertiary qualifications who could have been employed, and registered.
Until recently, the department failed to obtain interdicts against those who broke the law by striking (they are emergency workers), and we are not aware of any disciplinary action having taken place even when the behaviour of striking workers has been criminal.
We are, however, very much aware of the devastating impact that the gross mismanagement of forensic mortuary services is having on the criminal justice system.
De Haas and Naidoo are part of the Medical Rights Advocacy Network.