Accreditation For State Medical Examiner's Office In Danger

The state medical examiner's officer could lose its national accreditation because of funding and staff cuts, the chief state medical examiner said Tuesday.

Dr. James Gill released an Oct. 13 letter from the National Association of Medical Examiners warning that the group could pull the accreditation after a January inspection because the Connecticut office has "insufficient numbers of forensic pathologists, medicolegal death investigators, and clerical personnel for the volume of cases in Connecticut."

Gill has been highly critical of budget cuts in his office, saying it can no longer afford to handle the bodies of dead people who have no family or friends to claim them for disposal.

Gill has also said his office has been forced to cut back on doing toxicology tests in homicides and motor vehicle deaths because of staff and budget cutbacks. Gill has said the state budget crisis has resulted in an effective 11-percent cut in his budget.

Read more: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-medical-examiner-accreditation-20161102-story.html