Centre allows post mortem after sunset in hospitals

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday allowed conducting post-mortem after sunset in hospitals with adequate infrastructure, except in cases of homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies and suspected foul play.

Referring to the development, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in a tweet in Hindi said, “An end to the system put in place by the British! Post-mortem can be conducted round-the-clock. In furtherance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of good governance, the health ministry has decided that post-mortem can be conducted even after sunset in hospitals which have the facility to carry out the procedure at night.” “In response to the multiple references received by the Union Health Ministry from various sources and in line with the government’s commitment to promote ease of living by reducing burden imposed due to compliance to government processes, changes have been made in the post-mortem protocols to allow for the procedure to be conducted after sunset effective from today,” the health ministry said.

“Apart from friends and relatives of the deceased, this new procedure also promotes organ donation and transplant as organs can be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure,” it said.The multiple representations to the ministry in this regard were examined by a technical committee in the Directorate General of Health Services, Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

It was ascertained that some institutes are already performing night-time post-mortem. In view of the rapid advancement and improvement in technology, especially availability of required lighting and infrastructure required for post-mortem, performing night time post-mortem in hospitals is now feasible, the ministry said.