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The number of cremations, 4,140 was the highest on record at the Crematorium and continued
the upward trend which was temporarily arrested in the previous year. It is one of the objectives of
the Council to encourage cremation in appropriate cases. The proportion of cremations authorised
as a result of a Coroner's certificate in 1972 was 33.1% compared with 30.5% in the previous year.
In spite of the increasing number of cases cremated following the issue of a Coroner's certificate the
need for appropriate enquiry in the remaining cases does not appear to diminish. In 1972 a total of
10 cases were referred for autopsy examination by the medical referee before the cremation could
be authorised.
The Joint Committee considered the report of the Committee on Death Certification and
Coroners during the year and concluded that the office of medical referee should be retained but
that a single medical certificate completed by a suitably experienced registered medical practitioner
would be acceptable subject to certain safe-guards additional to those proposed in the Brodrick
Report. The Joint Committee further concluded that the medical referee's current power to require
an autopsy examination was of limited value unless he had the additional power to defray any
medical expenses incurred by the examination. It was therefore resolved that Dr. Michael H. Bennett
should be appointed consultant pathologist to the Crematorium. In fact it was possible to make
arrangements with H.M. Coroner (Dr. J. D. K. Burton) or with the medical staff involved in the case
for the necessary examinations to be undertaken in all ten cases during the year.
In spite of the firm opposition of the medical profession to some of the proposals in the Brodrick
Report concerning cremation, there was a notable tendency during the year for previously high
standards of certification to be relaxed. The recommendation that present methods of certification
be abandoned, have in some cases, made it more difficult to ensure that the present requirements of
the Cremation Acts are strictly followed. It has never been possible to insist that only the Crematorium's
own forms are used, and it was necessary to remind Funeral Directors during the year that
the provision of two entirely separate medical forms although apparently accepted at some Crematoria
were not suitable for use at Breakspear Crematorium. Occasionally such forms were received
separately at the Crematorium and it was obvious from incidental enquiries that the doctor completing
the second form had, in some cases, not seen the first form, although the current regulations require
this to be done. The Committee on Death Certification and Coroners appears to have seriously
underestimated the work of the present medical referee, and it would be unfortunate if, whilst
necessary safe-guards to remedy this omission were being considered, current standards were
allowed to deteriorate.
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