Death of the teaching autopsy: Autopsy findings are important to all clinicians, including general practitioners

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7432.165

BMJ 2004;328:165 (17 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7432.165

Letter

Death of the teaching autopsy

Autopsy findings are important to all clinicians, including general practitioners

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—O'Grady identifies several reasons why autopsyrates have been falling worldwide, in particular why studentsin New Zealand are now banned from attending autopsies, withresultant loss of undergraduate teaching opportunities.¹ However,attending and watching an autopsy are not the only educationallyrelevant facets of autopsies: their findings are important toall clinicians, including general practitioners.

Whitty et al found that autopsy findings (excluding coroners'reports) were poorly communicated to general practitioners infour districts in the north east Thames region. They receivedreports from only 39 of the 89 (47%) autopsies performed ontheir patients.²

In our study of 578 deaths in a general practice (97.8% of allpractice deaths) over 15 years the value of a death registerin contributing to clinical governance was severely curtailedby lack of cause of death information.³ Overall, 143 (24.7%)deaths were reported to the coroner, a percentage comparablewith . . . [Full text of this article]

Brian S Hurwitz, professor of medicine and the arts

King's College Strand, London WC2R 2LS brian.hurwitz@kcl.ac.uk

Berry Beaumont, principal general practitioner

2 Mitchison Road, London N1 3NG