MBMC to start autopsies round the clock

To help deal with emergency cases and ease the burden on relatives of the victims, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has decided to do away with the archaic practice of conducting postmortems only during the day.

In the significant move taken by the civic body chief Dr. Naresh Gite, the civic administration will soon allow post-mortems 24×7 at its facility located on the premises of the Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Civic Hospital in Bhayandar.

“We are into the process of upgrading infrastructure, especially the electrical lighting arrangements and other facilities, which will make it possible to examine a cadaver during nights with equal accuracy and precision,” confirmed a medical officer.

Till date, any request received after sunset was considered only for the next day, forcing the relatives to wait with the dead body. While the crucial post of government-deputed medical officer is lying vacant for the past couple of years, 30 doctors from the MBMC will conduct round-theclock post-mortems on a rotational basis.

The judiciary had directed the state government to frame a policy in this context to officially empower doctors attached with the health department for conducting post-mortems as a stop-gap arrangement. Apart from catering to the needs of six police stations in the city for medico-legal cases, the lone post-mortem centre shoulders an additional responsibility of handling railway accident cases that occur in and around the region. This medical facility registers an average of 100 autopsies per month.

The judiciary had directed the state government to frame a policy in this context to officially empower doctors