HM Inspector of Anatomy for Scotland: annual report 2023-2024

Edinburgh

56. Head of Anatomy: Professor Tom Gillingwater

57. There are 7 personal licence holders, 6 academic and 1 technical.

58. All licences were available for inspection.

Licensed Areas:

59. Premises Licence expiry date – 22 August 2032.

60. A map of the licensed area was made available for inspection.

61. Change from previous inspection: Licenced teaching rooms 10 and 11, wall between them removed and is now one room known as the Small Anatomy Teaching Laboratory (SATL).

Record Keeping:

62. A comprehensive record keeping system is in place; this is held both as a paper copy and backed up on a university server to which only the Head of Anatomy and the Bequest Coordinator/Chief Technician have access. The paper copy is stored in a fireproof cabinet.

Bequest Information:

• Bequest forms requested: 227 (211*)
• Bequest forms returned: 170 (112*)
• Bequests accepted: 31 (31*)
• Bequests rejected: 56 (60*)
• Bequests redirected: Aberdeen – 2, Dundee – 3, Glasgow – 10, St Andrews - 2
• Redirected bequests accepted: 0

*2022-2023 figures

Bodies Currently Held In The Department:

• Embalmed: 6
• Frozen: 20
• Total: 26
• Number of oldest body in storage and date by which it must be disposed: 2101 – 14 September 2024

Record Check:

63. A check of the records against the number of cadavers in storage plus their location according to the wall plan found everything to be in perfect order.

64. A random selection of retained parts and their location according to the Record of Retained Parts was checked and found to be correct. A reverse check of retained parts and their location was then made against their recorded location in the Record of Retained Parts which was again found to correct.

Code of Practice/Signed Agreements:

65. Everyone using cadaver material in the teaching lab is required to read and sign a Code of Practice. This was made available for inspection.

University Courses Using Anatomy Facilities:

66. Over the past year, 10 University courses used the anatomy facilities.

67. Nine external courses used the anatomy facilities – see Appendix for a list of some of these.

Courses Run At The Royal College Of Surgeons Using Cadaver Material from the Department:

68. Ten courses in total – see appendix for a list of some of these.

69. Bodies and body parts are transferred between the anatomy department and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for courses run by the College. A tracking system is in place to monitor the movement of specimens between the two establishments.

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

70. Skills Centre Manager: Lynsey Forbes

71. There are 4 technical personal licence holders at present. Three work in the Skills Centre, one works in the College Museum. All licences were made available for inspection.

72. Premises Licence expiry date is 3 May 2027

Access To Licensed Areas:

73. Access to all licensed areas is via a Paxton networked control system. A floor plan showing all the doors secured using the system was provided. The system allows real-time monitoring and control of who has access to different areas and can be used to restrict access to a specific timeframe.

74. Magnetic door closures are now in place. Doors are locked at all times when cadaver material is present in the Skills Lab, access being by wipe card only.

75. In the event of an alarm going off, security are called who in turn contact a licenced teacher.

Record Keeping/ Signed Agreements:

76. A copy of the Code of Conduct for those participating in College examinations/courses using cadaver material must be signed and returned to the Skills Centre Manager before anyone is permitted to enter the Skills Centre. These were available for inspection.

77. Course attendees and faculty members are issued with a Health & Safety form which must be read and signed at the beginning of the course. This form includes information and guidance on working with cadaveric material.

78. Bodies are received from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Dundee, the National Repository, Nottingham, and from Science Care, USA^[4].

79. In all cases there is a clearly defined checking process with corresponding documentation which I am satisfied meets the requirements of the Anatomy Act 1984 as amended by the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006.

80. Due to the increased demand for courses to be run at the College, there is now a serious problem of sourcing cadaver material to meet this demand. This situation is not helped by the need of the five medical schools in Scotland having to meet the increased need for cadavers required to teach the increasing number of medical students they now have to accept.

Courses Run in the College using Cadaveric Material - see Appendix:

81. No bodies currently held on site.