Post-mortem scanner ‘should be free’

A NON-invasive body scanner forpost-mortems should be free, a Birmingham Muslim group has claimed.

The city council has secured a 12-month trial arrangement to use the iGene facility based at Sandwell Valley Crematorium for £238 per case, reduced from more than £600.

The Computed Tomography Post Mortems (CTPM) machine can be a more effective way of establishing the cause of death according to Birmingham’s coroner.

But

it

is

also

the

preferred autopsy method from members of certain faiths, particularly Muslim and Jewish communities.

But Gulam Teladia, from the Birmingham Muslim Burial Council, argued the discount was not good enough.

He said: “Other areas are provided the scanner for free. It should also be offered to us automatically. At the moment we have to make an official request through the coroner. Hours and sometimes days are wasted.”

More than 10,000 people backed a petition launched in 2017 for Birmingham to have its own scanner due to the previously prohibitive costs of using the one in Sandwell as well as another facility in Oxford.

But the city’s mortuary is in need of urgent repairs and now the vision is to create a new ‘super’ facility for the West Midlands, which could house a mortuary, coroner’s court and the scanner. A controversial 51 per cent rise in interment fees in Birmingham this year was also justified by the growing demands on bereavement services as well as the desire to meet people’s preferences.