PANJIM: Goa has topped the States and Union Territories in registering cent percent deaths on medical certification for 2013, after ranking second for five consecutive years. According to a just released ‘report on medical certification of cause of death (MCCD) 2013’ by the Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, Ministry of Home Affairs; the State shares the top rank with Lakshadweep.
The ranking is done on the basis of percentage of medically certified deaths to total registered deaths. “The report is released every two years after thorough analysis. Till this year, we ranked second. For the years 2014 and 2015, the ministry will release reports in the coming years,” Dr Madhu Ghodkirekar, Associate Professor of Forensics of Goa Medical College, said.
Interestingly, this is the first time any State or UT has got 100 percent result, which hitherto was restricted to a little above 98 percent among the first ranked state/UTs.
Goa and Lakshadweep are followed by Chandigarh recording 92.9 percent registered deaths as medically certified, 73.3 percent in Dadra & Nagar Haveli, 73.1 percent in Pondicherry and 60.3 percent in Delhi. Amongst major States, the highest level of medical certification of cause of death has been observed in Maharashtra (33.4 per cent), which stands at the 14th rank.
In 1999, the office Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, Panjim through the Office of State Planning, Statistics & Evaluation started training for doctors on MCCD with help of GMC’s Forensic Medicine department and Directorate of Health services. Dr Madhu Ghodkirekar who has been coordinating these training right from its beginning, has trained nearly 3700 doctors from Goa so far.
“Practically every doctor in Goa has undergone this training. GMC has included this training as part of orientation programme for interns. The interns of Homeopathic & Ayurvedic College and the new doctors are also included under the training process,” he said.
