Investigation of changing forensic pathology workloads over time, in coronial jurisdictions of Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACT The workload of forensic pathologists involves performing autopsies for a coroner. In this study of Australia, it was hypothesized that autopsy numbers would increase over time owing to increasing numbers of deaths, but this potential trend could be influenced by changes in Coroners Acts. The five largest coronial jurisdictions of Australia were studied between 2006 to 2017. Regression analysis was used to compare autopsy numbers (from the National Coronial Information System) to the number of deaths (from the Australian Bureau of Statistics). The number of deaths increased over time in all jurisdictions. Two jurisdictions had changes to their Coroners Acts that appeared related to decreasing numbers of autopsies. Two jurisdictions had no changes to their Coroners Acts: one showed a greater increase in autopsy numbers than the increase in deaths, but the other's trend was significantly different to the increasing number of deaths. The fifth jurisdiction had a change in Coroners Act with a following, non-sustained decrease in autopsy numbers. The findings support the hypothesis that forensic pathology workload can be influenced by changes in Coroners Acts, but the finding also suggests that other factors may influence the number of autopsies that are performed by forensic pathologists.