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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, January 1 : The Medico-legal Association of Maharashtra has taken up the issue of poorly equipped mortuaries with the state government. This is for the first time that the unhygienic conditions of mortuaries, which have led to several public outcries, have attracted the attention of doctors.A high-level committee has accepted the association8217;s demands, which include filling up of vacant posts, new equipment and clean rooms to house mortuaries. The committee, comprising Secretary of Public Health Ramanand Tiwari, Director of Public Health Dr Subhash Salunke and Grant Medical College Dean Dr Dayanand Dongaokar recently accepted a memorandum of demands from the association8217;s representatives at a medico-legal conference held at the Grant Medical College last week.
The association has also demanded a remuneration Rs 110 per post-mortem. Of this, Rs 75 would be paid to the medical officer, Rs 20 to the mortuary assistant, Rs 15 to the technical staff and Rs 5 to the stenographer. The general secretary of the association, Dr V V Wase, said: 8220;The association has been demanding suitable remuneration for the staff attached to mortuaries for nearly a decade now. Though the high-level committee has agreed to it in principle, the government is not willing to grant its approval.8221; Remuneration for post-mortems is being paid in six other states since 1977. Rs 100 is paid per post-mortem in Kerala, Goa, Manipur and Orissa. In Madhya Pradesh, the remuneration is Rs 30 per post-mortem.
At the J J Hospital, a natural death with an unknown cause, is handled by the Pathology Department; unnatural death suicide, murder, accident etc after hospital admission is handled by the Forensic Department; while unnatural death before admission is handled by the police surgeon. In the Forensic department of J J Hospital, three associate professors8217; posts are vacant. Apart from the HOD, that leaves only two lecturers and two assistant lecturers. In 1996, 640 post-mortems were performed by these five doctors an average of two per day.
For Class IV employees, sources revealed, mortuary duty is a form of punishment. 8220;Employees who are not wanted by any other department are shunted to the mortuary. We have just two experienced staffers who train other temporary workers,quot; revealed a doctor on condition of anonymity.
Workers are hired on 29-day contracts. After the contract lapses, the government does not pay them. However, they continue to work and the relatives of the dead are made to pay them.
