Mumbai: Forensic surgeons at Nair hospital won't work beyond 7 hours

Forensic dept doctors said the new attendance rules hinder their work Nair HospitalThe biometric attendance system introduced at the citys civic hospitals seems to have pushed the emergency service staff to the brink Forensic surgeons at Nair hospital have once again dashed off a letter to the dean stating that they will henceforth not be working beyond the stipulated seven hours They had sent a similar letter in July last year soon after biometric attendance was introducedHighlyplaced sources attached to Nair hospital said on Saturday afternoon the forensic surgeons left the hospital after duty hours and refused to return even when informed about two bodies that had come for autopsy One was of an 80yearold man who was hit by an unknown vehicle at Kemps Corner on Friday night and the other of a woman who had died in Nairs casualty wardThey told the hospital authorities that they had completed their stipulated work hours four hours on Saturday and that they had already informed the dean of this decision in writing on March 16It was only around 2pm when the dean Dr Ramesh Bharmal called up the department head Shailesh Mohite and assured him that the matter would be discussed with Medical Director Dr Avinash Supe that a resident doctor and assistant professor were sent to conduct the postmortem with Dr Mohite himself supervising the jobDepartment officials even hinted that teaching at regular MBBS second year classes would get impacted due to this as no lectures can be conducted during duty hoursAttempts made to contact Dr Bharmal did not yield any result but Dr Mohite confirmed the eventsWhy are doctors sulkingSpeaking on condition of anonymity a forensic surgeon at the hospital said We are already shortstaffed Unlike KEM or Cooper hospitals our forensic department has just five doctors including a professor associate professor and lecturers Three posts are still vacant of which one who was selected refused to take the offer after learning about the working hours On any given day these doctors have to take lectures attend courts for trial in medico legal cases and conduct proper examination of victims in child abuse or sexual assault cases This calls for more duty hours than the stipulated seven he saidWe requested the admin to do away with the practice as each doctor is expected to put in only 39 hours 7 hours per day for five days and 4 hours on Saturdays a week instead of the approximate 73 hours a week being put before the biometric system was introduced Doctors worked on 24hour rotation shifts including on Sundays the doctor addedHe said Our demand is that we should either be compensated or entitled for compensatory leave for working the extra hours which the administration is unwilling to acknowledge or discuss even after writing official letters As there is no response from them we are presuming that they have accepted our requestThe forensic surgeon admitted that the new rules were causing hardship to patients Postmortem centres are expected to hand over a body within two hours of receiving them Now families of the deceased will unnecessarily have to wait much longer to get the bodies The civic administration should understand this rather than put pressure on the existing handful of team members he said