Dearth of forensic experts in TN
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The number of forensic experts in the state is dwindling at an alarming rate and police surgeons blame it on the sorry state of the mortuaries and students’ disinterest in forensic studies.
“The prevailing conditions at the mortuaries are keeping the doctors away,” said a senior forensic expert, adding, “No one is interested in pursuing forensic medicine and thus our numbers are fast dwindling and the available staff is over-burdened.”
Poorly-lit rooms, peeling walls, leaking roofs and the unbearable stench at the mortuaries in government hospitals make matters worse. Moreover, despite the demand for forensic experts in the state increasing every year, there is always a dearth of people qualified in MD forensic sciences in the government hospitals of Tamil Nadu.
With hardly 25 forensic experts in the state, the already overburdened staffers stagger against the huge pile of bodies in every hospital.
In all district taluk hospitals, clinical doctors and interns perform postmortems. There are only eight forensic doctors in the Madras Medical College, Stanley Medical College, Kilpauk Medical College and Government Royapettah Hospital to attend to more than 10,000 medico-legal cases that get registered in the city every year.
Apart from conducting autopsies, forensic experts are also called in as witnesses in courts where they spend several hours. “We also conduct classes for medical students but the salary is very meagre,” lamented a government police surgeon.
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