The operators of Rockingham General Hospital do not believe claims a man may have been sent to the morgue while he was still alive are true, saying senior doctors said what was noticed inside the man’s body bag was not unusual.

Hospital bosses will investigate whether death certificate procedures and protocols were followed after the death of 55-year-old Kevin Reid early last month but not whether he was alive when placed in a body bag and taken to the morgue. That is a matter for the coroner.

South Metropolitan Health Service chief executive Paul Forden said the hospital was launching an investigation into why the death of Reid was dated September 6 on paperwork - the day after he was considered deceased by medical staff.

Forden was responding to claims made by a doctor to the Coroner’s Office, reported by WA Business News, that he found Reid inside the body bag on September 6 with limbs in positions different to how he had been left, a tear on his arm that had been bleeding and his eyes open despite them being closed before he was taken to the morgue.

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