THERE are 490 bodies awaiting autopsies in Jamaica, some of which have been on ice since November last year.

The figure, which is the total number as of February 7, 2025, was obtained by the Jamaica Observer from Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine — the independent investigative institute under the Ministry of National Security that, among other things, performs post-mortem examinations on behalf of the coroner for the entire island.

The government facility said that bodies are being housed at 12 contracted funeral homes and two main hospitals — Cornwall Regional and Savanna-la-Mar hospitals — and sometimes Noel Holmes Hospital.

A total of 103 bodies were scheduled to undergo post-mortem examinations from February 8 to 16. However, the institute said that with daily updates in murder and fatal crashes, as well as violent unrest in areas such as Spanish Town in St Catherine where autopsies are conducted, there is no guarantee that the examinations will be completed as scheduled, as these factors often disrupt the process.

So far this year Jamaica has recorded 73 murders and 37 fatal motor vehicle crashes. Jamaica also recorded 1,139 murders last year and 364 deaths from motor vehicle crashes.

While the owner of one funeral home did not state the number of bodies at his facility awaiting an autopsy, Michael Archer of Archer’s Funeral Home — where bodies are housed by Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine — told the Jamaica Observer that he has bodies of individuals who died in November last year that are still awaiting autopsies.

“It takes, normally, a month, six weeks, or two months [for an autopsy]. November bodies are being done now, and after that we’ll have December [bodies]. It also [depends on] the type of deaths as well because it is only one day per week that we do decomposed [bodies],” he shared.

In an emailed response to the Sunday Observer, Institute of Forensic Science shared that it performs autopsies from three autopsy sites — House of Tranquillity Funeral Home, Archer’s Funeral Home, and Doyley’s Funeral Services.

Autopsies are performed, “Mondays to Saturdays at Archer’s and Tranquillity, and once per month for three days at Doyley’s. On weekdays, the staff would be given an autopsy list containing six and sometimes up to eight bodies. On Saturdays we conduct post-mortems on the decomposed bodies,” the institute wrote.

The government agency further stated that, “high-profile cases and foreign nationals are expedited and given a date within 10 working days, once notified by the police. All the other cases are placed in a queue and done in a scheduled manner”.

The institute is also responsible for conducting autopsies on victims of suicide and wards of the State, including inmates.

Head of Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, Dr Judith Mowatt shared that the delay in autopsies is mostly due to a lack of pathologists on the island.

There are currently six pathologists on staff, and two are being processed for employment. However, she told the Sunday Observer that one of the pathologists is on a short-term contract from February to April 2025.

Dr Mowatt further shared that some of the pathologists are from overseas, as there are not enough qualified individuals locally to perform the procedure.

“We have tried to recruit forensic pathologists internationally because they aren’t available locally to join our staff. We have been somewhat successful in that we have recruited another forensic pathologist from Cuba, and we hope that she will begin to join us by the end of this quarter. We are also in the process of recruiting a forensic pathologist from India, also to join us as soon as his work permit has been issued by the Ministry of Labour,” she said.

“We have on board a short-term assignment in that we have a pathologist from Sri Lanka who joined us in January, and he will be here in three months in order to build some capacity. Among the staff we do have, one pathologist was on a well-deserved vacation leave for all of January. We’re trying to make best use of the human resources that we have while trying to get more professionals on board so we can manage the workload,” she explained.

Dr Mowatt further shared that the institute has also lost some of its pathologists, one of whom now works at The University of the West Indies as part of the teaching staff.

“We [also] had two of our pathologists who resigned and went overseas. We’ve been losing staff, and the [result] is a negative effect on our staffing complement. The three that we lost in short order — the one to university and two to overseas — we haven’t been able to replace them immediately. In fact, their replacements are just going to arrive this year. In the interim we’ve been really short-staff[ed] — and that is the main reason for the backlog because when we have a full complement of staff we don’t have this backlog,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Dr Mowatt said to operate effectively the institute would need seven or more pathologists.

In addition to a lack of pathologists, the institute, in its written response, said that autopsies can be delayed if information about the deceased is late or not forthcoming. Without information about the deceased, an autopsy cannot be scheduled.

A timeline for the clearing of the backlog could not be provided, “as this depends on an increase in the staff complement”, the institute informed the Sunday Observer.

In an emailed response to questions posed, Dr Tracey Gibson, head of the pathology department at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Mona, explained that postgraduate training in pathology is accomplished via the Doctor of Medicine in Pathology (DM Pathology) programme offered in the Department of Pathology at The UWI.

“The number of MBBS graduates entering the DM Pathology programme varies from year to year but currently ranges from two to four per year. The programme trains for the Caribbean region, and so DM Pathology graduates can be found working across the Caribbean,” she explained.

Dr Gibson further noted that The UWI, Mona, had once been the only campus of the regional university offering postgraduate training in pathology, but since 2021 an identical programme is now being offered at the St Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said he is optimistic that the recent health expo that was orchestrated by the Ministry of Health and Wellness — which sought to educate citizens on different medical careers and jobs available — will help with the situation.

“We had the health expo recently, exposing Jamaicans to careers in public health [and so] all of the above would apply, meaning including that area [pathologists]. There is also the Barry Wint Scholarship that offers studies for health-related fields, which that particular health category calls for,” said Tufton.

In July last year, Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang said the long-promised forensic pathology autopsy suite — which is expected to bolster the work of Institute for Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, as well as increase the forensic capacity of Jamaica Constabulary Force, and reduce the backlog of criminal and other cases — “is practically finished”.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government had announced in 2021 a $555.9-million spend, stating that two years should see the long-awaited forensic pathology autopsy suite gracing Jamaica’s capital.

However in an interview with the Observer last July, Chang said the opening for the state-of-the-art facility, which will be located at 149 Orange Street in downtown Kingston, would “definitely” take place that year.

One month into 2025 there’s still no word on the official opening of the suite.