Police forensic investigators and forensic pathologists from the Ministry of Public Health appear to be at loggerheads over whether it is necessary to perform an autopsy on every flood-related body brought to Songklanagarind Hospital, in addition to the legally required formal identification process.
At the centre of this conflict is the two-million-baht compensation promised by the government to families of people who are proven to have died from a flood-related cause, including electrocution or underlying conditions worsened by the floods.
Forensic pathologists insist that an autopsy must be performed in every case of a flood-related death, while police forensic investigators maintain that identification alone should suffice, so the remains can be released to already grieving families as soon as possible.
Public Health Deputy Permanent Secretary Dr. Sakda Alapach, however, claims that there is no disagreement between the two agencies, adding that they have different responsibilities. He said that 20 forensic pathology teams are now at work, which will speed up the autopsy process.
He said the top priority for the Public Health Ministry is to return the remains to their families as quickly as possible. He added that autopsies are not needed on remains sent from other hospitals, because their causes of death have already been determined.
According to official records, the death toll from the floods in southern provinces is currently 162, 125 of whom were in Hat Yai alone.
Relatives of people still missing have been contacting the pathology department at Songklanagarind Hospital over the past two days, in an attempt to locate and reclaim their loved ones for funerals.
Officials at the hospital, however, must check all claims thoroughly, to ensure that the claimants are actually related to the victims, due to the moral hazard created by the government’s compensation scheme.
Some families are not ready to claim the remains yet, either because they have more urgent matters to attend to or because there are insufficient crematoria to handle the workload.
Unclaimed remains are currently being stored in seven refrigerated cargo containers at the hospital.
