Telangana to start conducting postmortems after sunset

Hyderabad: The State health department will start conducting postmortems after sunset across government hospitals in Telangana, which will be convenient for the family members of the deceased and also promote organ donation, as the donor organs can be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure. The decision to take-up postmortem after sunset in […]

Hyderabad: The State health department will start conducting postmortems after sunset across government hospitals in Telangana, which will be convenient for the family members of the deceased and also promote organ donation, as the donor organs can be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure.

The decision to take-up postmortem after sunset in government hospitals has come following the new post-mortem protocols that were released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) in which it was decided to allow conducting of postmortem after sunset.

On Saturday, the Director of Medical Education (DME), Dr K Ramesh Reddy had issued orders to principals and superintendents of teaching hospitals under DME to follow the new MOHFW protocols on conducting postmortems.

The DME has said that the government hospitals in Telangana will assess the fitness and adequacy of infrastructure etc so that there is no dilution of evidentiary value. The principals and superintendents will make necessary arrangements for postmortems after the sunset, DME said.

The hospitals will ensure that video recording of the post-mortem shall be done for all postmortems conducted at night to rule out any suspicion and preserved for future reference for legal purposes.

“Postmortem for organ donation should be taken up on priority and be conducted even after sunset at hospitals which have infrastructure for conducting such postmortems on a regular basis,” the DME said.

However cases under categories such as homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies, suspected foul play should not be subjected for postmortem during night times unless there is a law and order situation, the directives from DME said.