Nagpada police hospital may give up medico-legal cases to JJ

The Nagpada police hospital will soon relinquish its position as the premier institution for conducting medicolegal testing to JJ hospital A proposal has already been made to the government and a decision is expected soon Officials want to transfer not only medicolegal cases but also the four postmortem centres under the police surgeon to JJ hospital for smooth functioning Strictly for streamlining Police officials supporting the shakeup cited problems of staff shortage at Nagpada police hospital to favour the shuffleu00a0 Additional Chief Secretary Public Health Jayant K Banthia confirmed the development to MiD DAY ldquoThe police chief has been suggesting that quality medical assistance be provided to police personnel in the outpatient department OPD We are trying to meet this requirement Since the home department deals with staffing issues at Nagpada police hospital and the four postmortem centres JJ Cooper Bhagwati and Rajawadi the proposal needs to be reviewed by it before a decision is maderdquo he said adding ldquoThe idea is to bring all the centres under a single roof of public health department for better administration and smooth functioningrdquo Joint Commissioner of Police Administration S P Yadav said ldquoWe need to utilise the hospitalrsquos prime locale and offer better services At present the hospital has few honorary doctors They lack in providing quality medical aide and their visits are not regular There is no radiologist So we need to come up with a superspecialty OPD centre for handling cases of tuberculosis asthma cardiac care etcrdquo Postmortem centres Yadav added ldquoThe city has nine postmortem centres out of which four are directly under the police surgeon while the Sion KEM and Nair centres are under the BMCrun medical College The GT and St George centres come under the director of public health departmentrdquo The government gives a yearly sanction of Rs 45 crore to the police surgeon who handles the four centers Forensic experts attached to the centres said that there are frequent problems in paying electricity and phone bills And it was only recently that the centres cleared their rent dues mdash Rs 3500040000 a month mdash for the last seven years Senior Mantralaya officials said that a highlevel meeting was held a few weeks ago wherein JJ hospital and Grant Medical College dean T P Lahane police surgeon S M Patil and other officials met Addl Chief Secy Banthia Lahane said ldquoI have brought to the governmentrsquos notice that medicolegal cases across the country are dealt with the Department of Forensics Medicine and Toxicology attached to the medical colleges We handle the cases and the same can be continued henceforth The Nagpada hospital should only focus on providing quality treatment on OPD basis The four postmortem centres should be handed over to BMC hospitalsrdquo Lahane added that after the abolishment of the Coroner Act in 1999 the post of police surgeon was obviated and the designation may be changed to superintendent of police hospitals Not in favour However police surgeon Patil said ldquoThe superior police officers and government officials are being mislead by certain people with vested interests who are trying to malign the image of Nagpada police hospital which is over 100 years old The Coroner Act has been abolished and changes were made in the functioning of postmortem centres But the power for giving expert opinion on medicolegal cases still rests with the police surgeon and it cannot be changedrdquo Patil added that apart from treating 175200 policemen daily in the OPD the hospital is also playing a crucial role in handling medicolegal cases see box Yearly over 3000 cases are brought in from 94 police stations across the city for collection of samples DNA examination age determination etc he said ldquoWe have intimated the BMC and state government about the condition of the postmortem centres The proposal for the upgradation of Nagpada hospital is before the home department and we are expecting a response soonrdquo said Patil u00a0