HM Inspector of Anatomy for Scotland: annual report 2024-2025

Edinburgh

Head of Anatomy: Professor Tom Gillingwater

There are 7 personal licence holders, 5 academic and 2 technical.

All licences were available for inspection.

A detailed spreadsheet was made available indicating specifically the role and remit of each licensed teacher.

Licensed Areas:

Premises Licence expiry date – 22 August 2032.

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

Record Keeping:

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.

*2023-2024 figures

Number of oldest body in storage and date by which it must be disposed

2221 – 23 September 2025

Record Check:

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.

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:

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:

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

Seven 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:

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

Skills Centre Manager: Lynsey Forbes

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.

Premises Licence expiry date: 3 May 2027

Access To Licensed Areas:

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.

All doors are fitted with magnetic door closures and are locked at all times when cadaver material is present in the Skills Lab, access being by wipe card only.

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

Record Keeping/ Signed Agreements:

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.

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.

Courses Run in the College using Cadaveric Material.

For the period covering the inspection, 17 courses were run in the College.

Bodies are received from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Dundee, the National Repository, Nottingham, Innoved Institute (USA), Science Care (USA) and RISE Labs (Netherlands).

*Arrangements are made for body parts from Innoved Institute, Science Care and RISE Labs to be cremated at Borders Crematorium in accordance with the relevant regulations. Copies of all required paperwork are sent electronically to the crematorium in advance of the scheduled cremation. Afterwards the crematorium provides a certificate of cremation (paper copy) to confirm final disposal of the cadaveric specimens.

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.

Courses Run in the College using Cadaveric Material - see appendix.

One course to be highlighted from the list of courses run by the College is the Hostile Environment Surgical Training Course run by the David Nott Foundation where doctors from current war zones such as Ukraine and Syria attend the course before returning to put into practice what they learned on the course.

At the time of the inspection there were no bodies on site.