Fresh criticism has been levelled at the Isle of Wight Coroner’s Office after the Government admitted in Parliament yesterday (Tuesday) that local families are facing ‘untold turmoil’ due to record delays in the service.
Speaking during an exchange in the House of Commons, Joe Robertson, MP for Isle of Wight East, highlighted that the local coroner’s office now has the worst backlog in the country, with some families waiting as long as 800 days to learn the cause of death of their loved ones.
It was only yesterday morning that Island Echo exclusively revealed that 6 out of 7 staff members recruited to the Isle of Wight Coroner’s Office over the past 5 years have quit their jobs, raising fresh questions about the service.
Within hours, the ongoing dire situation was being discussed in Parliament.
Joe Robertson MP told the House:
“Speaker, the backlog of cases in the Isle of Wight coroner service is the worst in the country, causing pain and distress to too many families, some of whom are waiting 800 days to find out what’s happening to their loved ones.”
He asked:
“Will the Minister offer any comments or support to those families? And will she agree to meet with me to discuss how we deal with the problem of the Isle of Wight coroner?”
Article continues below this advertisement
In response, Alex Davies-Jones MP, speaking for the Ministry of Justice, acknowledged the severity of the crisis and confirmed that delays are creating significant hardship for grieving families on the Isle of Wight.
She said:
“Can I thank the Honorable member for his engagement on this issue. I know he’s written to me and we’ve had quite productive conversations about this.
“I recently met with the Chief Coroner to discuss this specific issue on the Isle of Wight because we know delays are causing untold turmoil to families in an already awful, traumatic process.
It has been confirmed that action is being taken by the Chief Coroner and Alex Davies-Jones agreed to meet with Mr Robertson to discuss what more could be done to fix the service, which has already been branded ‘not fit for purpose’ by senior leaders.
Calls are now mounting for urgent reform – perhaps even the replacement of the Coroner, Caroline Sumeray – to prevent more families from facing years-long waits during some of the most distressing moments of their lives.
Speaking after the session, Joe said:
“The awful backlog, which is causing too much distress to families, must be tackled without delay. I have received too many complaints and distressing stories”.
That’s what 14 years of under funding and austerity does to the system. It can’t be reversed in 12 months.
Like most services on the island, POOR!
The island deserves better.
The whole Coroners service has been damaged by the 14 years of Tory mismanagement of the pubic services. That said, their is clearly a particular problem on the Island and there seem to be a lot of hints that the Island’s Coroner is the reason the service cannot retain staff which in turn leads to backlogs. The Chief Coroner or, ultimately, the Lord Chancellor needs to hold the Coroner to account for te service she is paid to run and take the appropriate action. If she is not up to the job, there must be a process to address this including, ultimately, removing her from office.
Thesedays if someone is no good at their job
nothing gets done about it.
In the good old days they use to issue employees
who were useless with P45’s