Sassoon docs sick and tired of police cases

Say it is high time 18 civic hospitals share burden of medico-legal cases, as ordered by state two years ago

Say it is high time 18 civic hospitals share burden of medico-legal cases, as ordered by state two years ago

Faced with complaints from staffers at Sassoon General Hospital of increasing burden of police cases, state officials had issued an order stating that 18 civic hospitals in the city should also start handling such cases.

But even after two years of the order, Sassoon is still the only hospital that handles medico-legal cases for the city and neighbouring areas. The issue came to the fore last week when police officials accused Sassoon doctors of refusing to test suspected drunk drivers, and the doctors responded that they were overworked.

There is much unhappiness in the hospital now over the fact that despite formal training imparted to doctors at civic hospitals to handle police cases, the civic body corporation refuses to let its hospitals handle medico-legal cases.

"We are the biggest tertiary care hospital in the city and handle the maximum cases of emergency. Besides our routine hospital work, we also have to handle police cases," said a senior medical officer at Sassoon. "In proportion to staff strength, this work is too much to handle. Doctors at civic hospitals sit idle but don't handle police cases. Why so?"

Medical superintendent Pandurang Pawar agreed there was resentment in the hospital and added that it was legitimate. "I have myself conducted one-day trainings of doctors from civic hospitals on how to handle medico-legal cases," he said. "We taught them all police procedures and tests hoping that our burden would decrease, but nothing has happened. All cases are still being brought to us."

Police officials say that as Sassoon is the only centre to accept police cases, it affects evidence gathering too, as some tests are time-sensitive and can get delayed if too many patients are waiting.

"In cases of drink-driving, a person's examination, both physical and pathological like blood and urine, needs to be done on time. These are time-sensitive tests and if they get delayed then there is a lot of problem in nailing the culprits," said Senior Police Inspector Rajkumar Gaikwad of Swargate police station. "Naturally, since it is the only centre, there is a long waiting period. If the other hospitals start taking cases our job would be easier."

Dr R R Pardeshi, acting chief medical officer of PMC, in-charge of the 18 hospitals, said that he has to find out the details of the order and its implementation.

"This is not an overnight process. It takes a long time for us to implement the recommendation," said Pardeshi. "In the past one year, first we were bogged down by swine flu cases. By the time they receded we had to handle German Bakery blasts. Where was the time to do anything else? Now that all that is streamlined, I will look into the details."

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