It’s by no means unusual for Jamaicans to wait several weeks, even months, to say a formal farewell to those who have passed away.

Often, such delays result from the struggle to find money to cover massive funeral expenses.

Very often, too, there are delays as relatives and friends who are overseas struggle to make arrangements for time off from work in order to come home for funeral and connected activities.

The above constitutes a far cry from decades ago, when modern funeral homes were few, far between, and people were forced to keep the remains of departed loved ones at home on blocks of ice before burial within two or three days.

Our Sunday publication tells Jamaicans of a relatively recent, very troubling reason for current delays in funerals. That’s a shortage of pathologists, which means that in some instances autopsies may take up to two months.

Our reporter tells us that up to February 7 there were 490 bodies awaiting autopsy.

As many Jamaicans are aware, there are times when there is no requirement for an autopsy, especially where the deceased has had long, well-established, and recorded decline in health. However, sudden death — not least if there is even a remote suspicion of foul play — may well lead to an autopsy.

We hear that currently there are only six pathologists employed by the State agency, Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, which operates under the Ministry of National Security and handles matters of interest to the police.

Head of the institute, Dr Judith Mowatt, told this newspaper that there are ongoing efforts to recruit pathologists from abroad.

Unsurprisingly, just as in other medical fields and other professions, the drift to ‘greener pastures’, including overseas, has contributed to the shortage.

Nonetheless, we are encouraged that, while The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, was, for a long time, the only campus of the regional university offering postgraduate training in pathology, an identical programme is now being offered at the St Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago. That programme, which started in 2021, should, we expect, help to improve the situation.

Also, Jamaica’s Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is optimistic that a recent health expo which sought to educate Jamaicans regarding available medical careers and related jobs will help to trigger interest in pathology.

“There is also the Barry Wint Scholarship that offers studies for health-related fields, which that particular health category (pathology) calls for,” Dr Tufton said.

And in the ‘pipeline’ is a forensic pathology autopsy suite expected to cost in excess of $555 million and meant to assist the work of the Institute for Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, as well as increase forensic capacity of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

That autopsy suite, we are told, should already have been completed and will make a positive difference.

The annoyance caused by the long wait for an autopsy is bad enough.

But we are reminded that such delays escalate already very high costs related to funerals/burials.

Further, those left behind to grieve sometimes develop mental health problems, including depression, because of an absence of “closure”.

Reason enough, in our view, for those in charge to do whatever is necessary to fill those vacant posts.