2 weeks Ago By Steffy Thevar
Pune: It's among the largest govt hospitals in Pune region and now, Sassoon General Hospital ( SGH ) is feeling the pressure. In a single week, SGH's doctors issue about 180 disability certificates. And once every seven days, they process at least 50 age-determination certificates.
This certification work is besides the 30-odd postmortems performed at SGH every day. Now, other govt hospitals in the city — all authorised to carry out similar work — can share the burden , but deficiencies in infrastructure and bureaucratic reluctance have largely kept them from taking up these jobs, leaving SGH's doctors with barely enough time to treat patients or do medical research. In an attempt to fix this, SGH authorities have now written to the police and the other govt hospitals to ensure there is fair distribution of work among govt units.
Dr Yallapa Jadhav, SGH's medical superintendent, said discussions have already been held with Pune police about "decentralising" medico-legal cases, in which a doctor may feel the police need to intervene. Examples include fatal accidents, suspected cases of sexual assault, unexplained poisonings, attempted suicides etc. "We recently told Pune commissioner that police stations should take such work to govt hospitals closest to them, instead of only to Sassoon.
Oftentimes, it's a lack of awareness and Sassoon hospital's ability to operate 24x7 that is stopping cops from approaching these hospitals," Dr Jadhav said. The other hospitals in Pune that can share SGH's burden are Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Yashwantrao Medical College (YCM) in Pimpri, Command Hospital, Sardar Vallabhai Patel Hospital operated by PCB, PMC-run Kamala Nehru Hospital and District Hospital, Aundh. All of them can perform postmortems and issue age and disability certificates, but they have been reluctant to, officials said.
However, they have serious limitations as well. Dr Nagnath Yempalle, civil surgeon at District Hospital Aundh, said they conduct 5-6 post-mortems daily. "We also issue age and disability certificates.
As for postmortems, out of six units at our mortuary, four are functional. But for the past few months, all six have not been working," Dr Yempalle said, adding that repairs are on. Dr Yempalle added: "Most people who go to Sassoon for such services don't know we do similar work.
But we keep our postmortem facilities open only till evening because we have only one forensic specialist. Any MBBS doctor can perform a postmortem, but we refer complicated cases to Sassoon hospital." Dr Rajendra Wabale, YCM's dean said: "In Sept alone, we issued 82 disability certificates and conducted 352 postmortems.
Both disability and fitness certificates are issued every day, and postmortems are conducted as they come in. We have a cold-storage capacity for about 84 bodies. So we conduct postmortems as cases come to us.
" Dr Prashant Bothe, medical superintendent of Kamala Nehru Hospital, said they have set aside two days in a week — Tuesday and Thursday — for issuing certificates. "But people don't know we have those services, and go to Sassoon. We don't conduct postmortems because we don't have a fully developed forensic department yet," he added.
Command Hospital and AFMC did not respond to requests for comment. Pune: It's among the largest govt hospitals in Pune region and now, Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) is feeling the pressure. In a single week, SGH's doctors issue about 180 disability certificates.
And once every seven days, they process at least 50 age-determination certificates. This certification work is besides the 30-odd postmortems performed at SGH every day. Now, other govt hospitals in the city — all authorised to carry out similar work — can share the burden, but deficiencies in infrastructure and bureaucratic reluctance have largely kept them from taking up these jobs, leaving SGH's doctors with barely enough time to treat patients or do medical research.
In an attempt to fix this, SGH authorities have now written to the police and the other govt hospitals to ensure there is fair distribution of work among govt units. Dr Yallapa Jadhav, SGH's medical superintendent, said discussions have already been held with Pune police about "decentralising" medico-legal cases, in which a doctor may feel the police need to intervene. Examples include fatal accidents, suspected cases of sexual assault, unexplained poisonings, attempted suicides etc.
"We recently told Pune commissioner that police stations should take such work to govt hospitals closest to them, instead of only to Sassoon. Oftentimes, it's a lack of awareness and Sassoon hospital's ability to operate 24x7 that is stopping cops from approaching these hospitals," Dr Jadhav said. The other hospitals in Pune that can share SGH's burden are Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Yashwantrao Medical College (YCM) in Pimpri, Command Hospital, Sardar Vallabhai Patel Hospital operated by PCB, PMC-run Kamala Nehru Hospital and District Hospital, Aundh.
All of them can perform postmortems and issue age and disability certificates, but they have been reluctant to, officials said. However, they have serious limitations as well. Dr Nagnath Yempalle, civil surgeon at District Hospital Aundh, said they conduct 5-6 post-mortems daily.
"We also issue age and disability certificates. As for postmortems, out of six units at our mortuary, four are functional. But for the past few months, all six have not been working," Dr Yempalle said, adding that repairs are on.
Dr Yempalle added: "Most people who go to Sassoon for such services don't know we do similar work. But we keep our postmortem facilities open only till evening because we have only one forensic specialist. Any MBBS doctor can perform a postmortem, but we refer complicated cases to Sassoon hospital.
" Dr Rajendra Wabale, YCM's dean said: "In Sept alone, we issued 82 disability certificates and conducted 352 postmortems. Both disability and fitness certificates are issued every day, and postmortems are conducted as they come in. We have a cold-storage capacity for about 84 bodies.
So we conduct postmortems as cases come to us." Dr Prashant Bothe, medical superintendent of Kamala Nehru Hospital, said they have set aside two days in a week — Tuesday and Thursday — for issuing certificates. "But people don't know we have those services, and go to Sassoon.
We don't conduct postmortems because we don't have a fully developed forensic department yet," he added. Command Hospital and AFMC did not respond to requests for comment..
