The Editor, Sir:

Now that the police have officially closed the Bob Woolmer case and all the blame has been laid squarely at the feet of pathologist Dr. Ere Seshaiah, let us consider some other factors.

In all the post-mortems by the press, I have not heard a balanced commentary made by anyone to give an overarching perspective on this scenario. Long working hours and poor working conditions have characterised the doctors' abilities to perform at their optimum levels.

For instance, some time ago it was brought to the attention of the public that there were only five pathologists in the whole island, and the caseload for each pathologist was somewhere in the region of 300 to one on average per year.

The report published in the printed press also went on to say that the average time for an autopsy should be three hours, but our pathologists were doing each case between 20 to 30 minutes. What does that say for the justice system that is dependent on these reports?

In addition, there are inadequate resources of physical space as bodies are placed upon bodies due to shortages of autopsy tables, inadequate forensic instruments, refrigerators and poor lighting coupled with long working hours.

With this sordid type of background, it seems to me that one can extrapolate that with such heavy caseloads and long working conditions, pathologists are prone to make habitual mistakes that undermine the integrity and thoroughness of their work, which does not make the Bob Wolmer case any more special than a John Doe.

With all said, I would like to share the blame of this debacle with the Government, as they are primarily responsible to provide the resources, including human. Now that Jamaica's incompetence in forensic science has been brought to the fore, I hope that the good that comes out of this is for the Government to do the right thing and make amends by providing the pathologists with the necessary resources.

I am, etc.,

JODI-ANN JOHNSON

god_loves_jodi@yahoo.com

Kingston 20

Via Go-Jamaica