(Trinidad Guardian) The already sluggish criminal justice system now has another hurdle to climb after the lone pathologist on duty downed his scalpel yesterday, saying he will not be working until there was an improvement in the operations of the Forensic Science Centre (FSC), St James.
Speaking with the media outside the FSC on Tuesday, Dr Valery Alexandrov said for the year he has already performed 310 autopsies, 156 of them being homicides and by international standards a pathologist that crosses 350 autopsies a year can be stripped of his ability to do his job through deficiency phase one.
Alexandrov said he was the only working pathologist for six weeks as his colleague, Dr Eslyn McDonald-Burris, was on vacation and Dr Hughvon des Vignes had not signed a renewal contract.
He complained that he was understaffed based on international standards which required one mortuary assistant for every 100 cases and so far there had been 1,200 cases done at the FSC for the year.
To date there are five attendants with three of them being women.
