‘Frightening’ And ‘Frustrating’: Budget Shortfalls Cripple Coroner’s Office
The problem is growing throughout the state, but the shortage of resources in the Los Angeles County Coroner-Medical Examiner’s office is particularly severe.
KQED:
Decades of Budget Shortfalls Frustrate L.A. County Coroner
The shortage of resources has serious public health implications, such as delaying health alerts to ambulance crews and emergency room doctors when there’s a spike in overdoses such as those occurring now with fentanyl and other opioids. Likewise, we rely on pathologists’ reports to head off disease such as the tuberculosis epidemic that broke out a couple years ago on L.A.’s Skid Row. Findings by coroners’ departments help to identify trends in another public health issue, violent crime. Finally, slowness in investigating questionable deaths causes additional anguish and sometimes financial hardship to friends and relatives of the deceased. (Richard, 7/5)