In Singapore, all unnatural cases of death would be directed to a coroner by an investigation officer (IO). Unnatural cases of death includes accidents, suicides and cases where the cause of death could not be identified. In such cases, the body will be brought to the Health Sciences Authority at Block 9 of Singapore General Hospital where the coroner will then decide if an autopsy is needed to determine the cause of death.

If the above applies to someone you love who passed on, the body would not be allowed to be collected till the following day at least. The IO will inform you of a time to meet at SGH Block 9 for the collection of the body. However, due to the increasing rates of death and the fact that HSA is the only place where bodies with unidentified death cause goes to, there usually is a queue for the release of the bodies at SGH Block 9. What this means is if the IO asks you to be there at specific time, be prepared to wait from 10 minutes to a few hours for the release of the bodies. At times where there is a spike in the number of post-mortem cases, the wait could be until the afternoon. Many are unaware of this and might get frustrated with the wait but this is the norm.

SGH Block 9 is the mortuary of SGH and is separate from where all the other wards are located at. To get there, Outram MRT would be the nearest and if you're coming from the wards at SGH, it would be a 15 minutes walk and hence driving would be the most convenient. There is a big open carpark there and parking is free.

For more visuals and information, do watch the video below.