Provision of Digital Autopsy Services

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council are the relevant authority for the Black Country Coroners Service. The Black Country Jurisdiction covers Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampton and this contract will provide digital autopsy(CT scanning) services for all four areas and were offered in one lot as we sought a single provider. Digital Autopsy/CT Scanning is used as first line intervention as an alternative to traditional post-mortem examinations within the Black Country. Patients are scanned via a CT Scanner and images from the scan are then used by specially trained radiologists and coroners’ pathologists to assist in ascertaining a cause of death. It is anticipated that a cause of death can be ascertained in approximately 75% of cases where patients have been scanned. This avoids the need to use the more traditional invasive approach to post mortem in these cases.