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On 3 July 2008 Kara Lawrence and Kate Sikora of the Daily Telegraph reported “Westmead morgue to shut: lack of staff to blame”.

They said one of the state's busiest morgues will be shut down after health authorities conceded they are unable to recruit more staff to perform autopsies. The Daily Telegraph understands an announcement is imminent of the closure of Westmead morgue, which has been plagued by a lack of staff which has blown out waiting times for final post-mortem reports of up to 14 months. It means families of dead people from Sydney's west will have to travel to either Glebe or Newcastle to identify their loved ones bodies. Glebe and Newcastle will be the only remaining morgues in the state.

Glebe currently has five forensic pathologists and Newcastle four but Westmead has only one full-time pathologist and one part-time to cope with all deaths in that area. The move follows a dire, long-running international shortage of forensic pathologists who carry out post-mortem examinations. Sources said Westmead morgue was originally built save people from travelling into the city because of Western Sydney's population explosion. It is understood health authorities have been debated how to fix the problem for months but had finally decided to shut it down.

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