The government’s decision to allow post-mortems to be performed round-the-clock in six government medical colleges and the Kasaragod General Hospital has raised concerns among the medical fraternity.
Apart from the fact that there aren’t enough number of forensic experts in the State who can perform autopsies, medico-legal experts point out government hospitals will now be vulnerable to litigations in medico-legal cases.
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“The conduct of post-mortems round-the-clock will be possible only after the government creates adequate infrastructure, lighting facilities in the selected institutions and the required number of posts of forensic science personnel as well as support staff. The selected institutions have to submit proposals to the government detailing its requirements. At a time when there are other public health priorities before the State, this is a huge and unnecessary investment, which will hardly benefit the public,” a senior doctor points out.
It is learnt that the Kasaragod GH has already put up a proposal of over Rs.85 lakh for creating the infrastructure for the conduct of night-time post-mortems. The funds are to come from the local area fund of the people’s representative.
“I fail to understand how this new facility is going to benefit to the public. Can’t these funds be used to save people’s lives? This is a huge investment for a requirement (night-time post mortem) which comes up so rarely,” says a forensic expert.
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In Kerala, where everything takes on political colour, this facility is likely to be misused by many, who will put doctors under severe pressure, he says.
Already, in cases of mass casualties and cadaver organ donation, night-time post-mortems are done with the consent of the District Collector.
The State does not have enough forensic medicine specialists. The State Health Service has only three or four forensic medicine surgeons while in the medical colleges, forensic surgeons are less than half the number of required personnel.