Failure on the part of the Health Department to post a medical consultant in forensic medicine (MCFM) to the Kollam district hospital has resulted in the hospital lacking a police surgeon since 2007. Only if a MCFM is posted can the Home Department designate that doctor as a police surgeon qualified to conduct all medico-legal autopsies.
In spite of 10 MCFMs serving the Health Department and some of them willing to work in Kollam, a MCFM is not being posted at the district hospital. The situation is causing much hardship for the public and the police.
Sources said that because of the situation at least 500 medico-legal autopsies which could have been conducted in Kollam were being referred to the Thirivananthapuram Medical College Hospital on an average each year. This was in turn burdening the Thiruvananthapuram MCH too.
Moreover, when the body reaches the MCH late in the day from remote areas in the district the autopsy can be carried out only the next day. Because of the heavy number of autopsies at the MCH, there is also delay in getting the report.
For Kollam general hospital, the post of MCFM was sanctioned in 2010. But at that time the department had only two specialists in forensic medicine. Because of this, the MCFM post was temporarily given to a medical consultant in dermatology. The dermatologist retired recently and now ordinary autopsies are being done by the regional medical officer.
Ordinary autopsies can be done by any medical practitioner. But under the Kerala Medico Legal Code, the autopsy on all cases of homicide, dowry deaths, other deaths where the inquest was held by an executive magistrate and all deaths under suspicious circumstances have to be done by a designated police surgeon. A Central government circular of 2012 directs all district hospitals to post two forensic medicine experts in all district hospitals. A 2014 circular says that at least two forensic experts be posted in all hospitals that report 100 autopsy cases on an average each year.
In spite of these directives, there are no efforts to appoint even one to the Kollam district hospital. City Police Commissioner P. Prakash said that lack of a police surgeon in Kollam was causing much hardship to the district police.
