24 March,2018 05:43 PM IST | Mumbai | Vinod Kumar Menon
Forensic dept doctors said the new attendance rules hinder their work, Nair Hospital
The biometric attendance system, introduced at the city's 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 introduced.
Highly-placed 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 80-year-old man, who was hit by an unknown vehicle at Kemps Corner on Friday night, and the other of a woman who had died in Nair's casualty ward.
They 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 16.
It 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 job.
Department 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 hours. Attempts made to contact Dr Bharmal did not yield any result, but Dr Mohite confirmed the events.
Why are doctors sulking?
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a forensic surgeon at the hospital said, "We are already short-staffed. 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 said.
"We 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 24-hour rotation shifts, including on Sundays," the doctor added.
He 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 request."
The 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.
