The State government in its annual budget allotted Rs. 10 crore to five government hospitals to upgrade their mortuaries. The three medical college hospitals in the city and medical colleges in Coimbatore and Madurai would benefit from this move. Four months later, the paperwork is still on.
According to qualified police surgeons, the health department accords very little priority to the forensic medicine department to which they belong. A police surgeon requires not just patience but also determination to see through the arduous process of autopsy which, in some cases, may take hours.
Meticulous investigation becomes difficult if the workplace is inhospitable. Several experts I spoke to seem demoralised, despite the respect they earn from the police and judiciary.
The tools that the forensic staff use for autopsy are primitive — chisel and hammer instead of electric saws and blades wrapped in adhesives. “In a country where healthcare gets very little attention, we hardly count,” is how one police surgeon puts it.
An experienced police surgeon, formerly with the government, says modern equipment would speed up autopsies. The government must provide for recurring purchases. “The blade of an electric saw used to open the skull will not last for more than 200 autopsies though manufacturers claim it can be used for 500 autopsies. If we have no replacement for the damaged equipment, we will have to rely on a chisel and hammer. Electric saws are considered a one-time investment but they last only for one or two years,” he says.
Given the nature of their work, the staff should be provided test kits to detect communicable diseases, and appropriate protective gear such as disposable perfect-fit gloves, rubber boots, aprons, surgical gowns and masks. The mortuaries were constructed when the hospitals were built and little effort has been made to improve them, since. Police surgeons have presented a proposal for several items — hydraulic trolleys to carry bodies, worktables and chairs for the family and investigating authorities to sit and watch the procedure.
A police surgeon says, “We need as much facility as an operation theatre complex. We need a proper waiting room for the family, drinking water and rest rooms, a place to wash up after the procedure and computers to prepare the post-mortem report and other medico-legal documents.”
Police surgeons worry about their fellow beings’ welfare. “Most of all, continuous water supply and a separate drainage system to prevent contamination from mortuary waste are necessary. Since most mortuaries are in thickly-populated areas, gases released from the mortuary should be filtered and let out through tall outlets,” a surgeon says.
