The Ministry of Justice is still working out how to provide a coronial postmortem service in Dunedin.
It has cobbled together a service, after a disagreement with the Southern Community Laboratories pathologists who provided it until earlier this year.
A ministry spokesman said two Dunedin pathologists had been contracted to the service for now.
''There have been no reported delays or concerns with accessibility of postmortem examination services, and neither of the current pathologists have indicated that they intend to retire,'' the spokesman said.
The SCL pathologists pulled out because of concern over inadequate resourcing and support.
The spokesman said the ministry was working through a ''procurement project'' to secure a long-term contract, but no further information was available about what that could mean.
SCL medical director Dr Peter Fitzgerald said Dunedin needed a forensic pathologist who would be part of the national forensic service.
''The quality and sustainability of the service would be guaranteed if there was somebody who was part of a national organisation whose sole purpose was to do forensic pathology.''
At present, forensic pathologists are flown into Dunedin after suspicious deaths.
Having a forensic pathologist would support the pathologists who did coronial postmortems along with their wider duties, Dr Fitzgerald said.
''We think that the responsibility needs to be held by a national organisation, because of the resourcing issues.''
