ATTITUDES OF SENIOR PATHOLOGISTS TOWARDS THE AUTOPSY

The attitudes of 205 consultant British pathologists in four regions w ere assessed by a postal questionnaire in which they were asked to ind icate their level of agreement with 15 statements relating to autopsie s. A total of 144 pathologists completed the questionnaire (response r ate 70 per cent). Senior pathologists strongly agreed with statements relating to the importance of autopsies within pathology workloads, me dical audit, and accreditation for training posts. There was strong su pport for the attendance of clinicians at autopsy demonstrations and f or the suggestion that material from medico-legal autopsies should be made available for teaching and research. There was strong disagreemen t with the suggestions that advances in diagnostic techniques have dim inished the role of autopsies, that performing autopsies does not furt her pathologists' education, that the cost of autopsies may not be jus tifiable within a limited budget, and that the autopsy should no longe r be part of the MRCPath examination. These results are discussed in t he context of the current status of the autopsy in general.