PANJIM: A diagnosis of the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Faculty of the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) reveals that the mortuary block is suffering from a multiple department failure.
While GMC’s mortuary block has the capacity to preserve over 100 bodies at a time, the number of bodies in the morgue is currently nearing 250.
The problem of providing an interim space for a body begins with being unable to identify the person and the period it lasts sometimes goes beyond three and five years. The reason, as pointed out by GMC staff, is the absence of any document which can provide details of the dead person’s identity.
“Whenever the police pick up a person, the first thing is obviously to provide medical help and they bring the person to the hospital. But while medication is being given, there is no proper documentation done to keep track of the person. Therefore when the person passes away neither the hospital nor the police have any clue to his identity,” a senior doctor said.
While the identity problem is common across State-run morgues including GMC, Hospicio Hospital and TB Hospital at Monte Hill in Margao, a deeper crisis is in the number of bodies that are being preserved at GMC due to the collapse of the system at Hospicio Hospital.
Hospicio’s 24-cabinet morgue has been non-operational for long, and the government in the hope of completing the South Goa District Hospital, has not taken it up for repairs.
The other major problem is the availability of doctors to handle the department. GMC’s Forensic Department is currently short of two teaching faculty, apart from attendants, while Hospicio does not have any staff as the only doctor is currently under suspension. As a stopgap arrangement, a doctor from GMC has been temporarily appointed to fulfill the duties at Hospicio.
A doctor said, “It is a systemic failure where we always point out loopholes at the existing and functional infrastructure, but we fail to realise that the GMC morgue cannot accommodate the requirements of entire Goa. Facilities will have to be provided at the district hospitals.”
GMC sources said that bodies from 2010 have been lying in the morgue as they are unclaimed and have not been disposed off by the authorities. However, after a recent joint consultation of the health department and the district administration, unclaimed bodies are being disposed off by the Corporation of the City of Panaji in the North Goa and Margao Municipal Council in South Goa.
Dr Edmundo Rodrigues, Head of Department of Forensic Medicine said, “While we try to manage with the limited space we have, it is appalling that we have more bodies than space. With the intervention of the District Collectors, Health Secretary and the Health Minister, we have begun disposal of unclaimed bodies which have been here for years. About 100 bodies will be disposed off by the municipal authorities within a month.”
