Visakhapatnam, December 10, 2021: Shortage of forensic doctors in Andhra Pradesh has become a major problem as each year more than 25,000 autopsies are conducted at different government hospitals and Vaidya Vidhana Parishad hospitals. The number of forensic experts is not sufficient so that medical authorities are availing the service of MBBS doctors and others.
The entire state has around 50 forensic doctors in government sector who are eligible to do autopsies. Though the state has 21 PG seats in 11 colleges in forensic medicine (FM), disinterest of medicos leads to fewer number of takers. The situation is more or less same not only in Telangana, but across nation.
A retired professor in forensic medicine said there are 551 forensic medicine PG seats in 192 colleges in the country but only 30% of the seats are filled every year. Students are not opting for the FM branch in many colleges.
“If you take the case of Andhra Medical College (AMC), only 17 forensic medicine PGs joined and completed the course while 40 seats were available in the last one decade,” says the head of the department of forensic medicine and toxicology, AMC, Dr. V Chandra Sekhar, who is a retired major of Indian army.
Presently, Telangana has 27 PG seats in seven colleges in the FM branch. Out of the 21 seats in AP, seven seats are in private colleges and the remaining are in six government medical colleges according to the reports published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
Out of 27 seats in Telangana, Osmania Medical College has 10 seats, and Gandhi college has five seats. But, only 25% to 30% of seats are filled every year. “The AMC in Vizag did not have a professor in the wing for almost six years from 2014 to 2020. Forensic medicine doctors should be given extra incentives like in a few other states which are giving 1000 to 2000 for each autopsy. Because there will not be any private practice for them unlike other doctors,” Chandra Sekhar said.
“The government should appoint more FM doctors in district hospitals. They appointed one doctor each in all 13 districts on a contract basis recently. When there is no scope for an FM doctor to grow up financially, nobody would take up this branch,’ a PG student commented. No one wishes to get branded as ‘Savala Doctor’ (mortuary doctor) unless they get a better salary and better facilities, because it’s a risky job as they deal with dead bodies, he added.
