In around a month’s time, the process of preparing postmortem (PM) reports will be computerised, thereby helping the doctors, the police and the judiciary who earlier faced several hurdles while discharging their duties. When contacted, director of health services Satish Pawar and Mumbai police surgeon Dr S.M. Patil confirmed the development.
Soon a computer and a printer will be provided to all the four state run PM centres in Mumbai which are Sir JJ, Cooper, Bhagwati and Rajawadi hospitals where a majority of PMs are carried out every year. The step is said to have multiple benefits.
Dr Balaji Phalke, a MBBS doctor and a forensic expert, presently posted at the Rajawadi PM centre is making the format required for the digitisation of the PM report. There will me a main format with 22 questions. Each question will have options/choices to choose from. Every aspect of PM has been deeply studied before presenting the options. Further, in case the doctors want to fill additional information then a separate note box has been presented with every option.
For example question no.17 states the injuries the person has suffered. All types of injuries are given in the option so the doctor need not waste time in typing. The last option is of unclassified which can be chosen in case the doctor intends to write a note instead. Apart from this format another 10 formats have been made for forensic reports on DNA, microbiology, histopathology, hair sample, nail sample, blood sample, tooth, bone etc.
One copy of the PM report will be directly e-mailed to the police surgeon, to the investigating officer of the case and to the family member of the deceased. Explaining the advantages, a doctor said, “Apart from saving our valuable time, energy and paper it will help the police and judiciary to understand the report without the slightest doubt.” Earlier, during the trial stages, defence lawyers used to point out that some words in the post mortem report are not clear and the handwriting is not understood.
Due to this, the doctors who conducted the PM even in accident cases were asked to be present in court to clear any doubts raised by the lawyers. “Also, after a year or so the paper used for the PM report becomes brittle and may get torn or go missing. This will also help us to find out how many died of what causes at the touch of a button,” said the doctor.
