Conducting regular autopsies during night time at the Government Medical College (GMC), Ernakulam, in keeping with the Health Ministry’s recent notification, calls for doubling the current strength of its forensic experts, besides incorporating additional infrastructure.
The forensic medicine wing was set up at the GMC by a two-member team led by Meena K.S., Professor and head of the department, and assisted by Unmesh A.K., Additional Professor and Police Surgeon, in July 2016. Unlike other medical colleges in the State, which record more than double its number of autopsies, GMC, Ernakulam, has been converted into a referral centre having a say on the cases it takes up.
It has restricted autopsies to cases where either the police or relatives raise suspicion about the death, leaving the rest to peripheral centres. About 35% to 40% of autopsy cases continue to be road accidents of which GMC, Ernakulam, mostly takes up the unwitnessed and hit-and-run cases, which may turn out to be criminal acts in the future. Restricting the number of autopsies is to help forensic experts, who are also faculty members, to focus on their primary duty of teaching.
“Strengthening peripheral centres and extending the time for receiving requisitions from the police for conducting autopsies will help do away with the need for conducting autopsies during the night altogether. It will de-congest service delivery and spare relatives of the trauma of waiting to get their dear ones’ bodies released after having come from far. Anyway, we do conduct autopsies beyond the sanctioned time if it so warrants, including for harvesting organs,” said Dr. Unmesh.
Notwithstanding self-imposed restrictions, the number of autopsies conducted at the GMC has increased progressively except last year, which is attributed to the COVID-19 outbreak. From over 250 in 2016, the number rose to around 700 the year after and nearly 1,000 in 2019 before dropping to around 700 last year. The number has again risen to nearly 1,000.
The GMC now has a forensic team and a support staff team of four members each. “Regular autopsies call for three shifts, which require increasing the strength of the forensic team by double and that of the support staff team by two or three times, since every autopsy needs at least two supporting staff. Besides, additional infrastructure will have to be arranged, including resting space for those doing night shift,” said Dr. Unmesh.
