Sa. Hinchliffe et al., ATTITUDES OF JUNIOR MEDICAL STAFF TO REQUESTING PERMISSION FOR AUTOPSY, Postgraduate medical journal, 70(822), 1994, pp. 292-294
The attitudes of junior medical staff in a university teaching hospita
l to requesting postmortem examination were assessed. Following comple
tion of 100 death certificates, autopsy was sought in only 28 cases (a
nd refused in 18). The majority of staff were unaware of the reported
benefits of autopsy, despite their inclusion in the local medical hand
book and had received no training in how to seek permission for a necr
opsy. Formal education programmes have been shown to improve hospital
autopsy rates and the results of this study suggest that these would b
e welcomed by junior medical staff.