Civil hospitals in quandary over health dept’s new autopsy order

We don’t have any forensic expert in the district, so we are forced to send the bodies to medical college in Amritsar.

DR SAMSHER SINGH,

Tarn Taran civil surgeon

TARN TARAN: To ensure proper implementation of rules during post-mortem procedures, state health director Rajiv Bhalla issued an order to all the civil surgeons. The development came after Punjab and Haryana high court’s directions in this regard.

As per order, the civil surgeons are to ensure the post-mortems in murder and suicide cases,which will be conducted in presence of specialised forensic teams at district and state-level hospitals. But the health department order has thrown the doctors into a tizzy because of shortage of forensic experts. The court issued the order on October 3 and the order was circulated on October 13 to all civil surgeons of the state.

Health department sources said, the direction came after court had found two different autopsy reports in a murder case. Following this, the health department was given strict instructions to take action against the accused in such cases.

Sources said, “The doctors in civil hospitals are now forced to send the bodies to nearby government medical colleges owing to lack of forensic experts.”

Civil surgeon Tarn Taran Dr Samsher Singh said, “We don’t have any forensic expert in the district. We are forced to send the bodies to government medical college in Amritsar but they are not accepting such cases, saying they have not received any government order.”

He said, “There is a director of research and medical education for government medical colleges. There are three medical colleges, in Amritsar, Faridkot and Patiala. But because of lack of coordination with the director of health, these medical colleges are waiting for orders.”

He said, “A suicide case of Surjit Singh, 30, of Kadgill village was sent to the Amritsar Government Medical College for post-mortem, on Saturday. But they refused to accept the case.” “We are now conducting post-mortems at our mortuary houses.” he added.

AGMC principal, Dr Tejbir Singh was unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts.

Activist Harikrishan Arora said, “The court’s order is in public’s favour. Owing to the government apathy towards the state health system, the people will have to bear the burden and approach the government medical colleges for conducting postmortems.” “The government should immediately appoint forensic experts in all civil hospitals of the state,” Arora said.