"NOTHING IMPROPER"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1937, Page 6

"NOTHING IMPROPER"

DISPOSAL OF BODY

REPORT TO HOSPITAL BOARD

A finding that there was nothing irregular or improper about the incident concerning the sending of a male body to the Otago Medical, School recently was tabled last night by the special committee of the Wellington Hospital Board set up to investigate the position. The report was received without discussion. It stated:— "The deceased was removed to Dunedin for anatomical examination: he had no relatives in New Zealand: he had no friends so far as hospital officers then knew. By section 31 of the Medical Act, 1908, provision Is made for the examination of such bodies. It was only after the body had been removed to Dunedin that a friend called and it was at once arranged that the body should be returned and buried in a plot in Karori Cemetery, which the deceased had bought. The . friend, though notified, did not attend the funeral. Mr. W. A. Croskery was invited to attend upon the committee set up to deal with -his complaint against the hospital officers. He was also invited to state if the date of proposed meeting was suitable to him. Mr. Croskery replied that he would not attend, as he had other business to attend. He made no suggestion that he desired to attend on another date. "The committee examined the facts relevant to the whole matter, and finds there was nothing irregular or improper in the procedure taken. The deceased's friend, though invited to attend the committee meeting, failed to do so. The funeral charges were not, in the opinion of the committee, excessive, and were duly authorised by the deceased's trustee, who, in fact, arranged for the funeral. It may also be mentioned that the statement that the hospital made a habit of sending bodies to Dunedin for examination can best be« answered by the fact that an average of not more than-one body a year has been sent in recent years."