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Centre Allows Post-Mortems After Sunset; Health Minister Tweets, ‘British System Over!’

Mumbai: Centre has allowed conducting post-mortems after sunset in hospitals with adequate infrastructure, adding that cases like suicide and rape should not be subjected to such post-mortem unless there is a law and order situation.

The Union ministry said in a release: “(The post-mortem protocols were changed) in response to the multiple references that have been received by the Union Health Ministry from various sources and in line with the Government’s commitment to promoting ease of living by reducing the burden imposed due to compliance to government processes.”

The ministry further said: “Apart from friends and relatives of the deceased, this new procedure also promotes organ donation and transplant as organs can be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure.”

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, “An end to the system put in place by British!”

https://twitter.com/mansukhmandviya/status/1460214807278219266?s=20

The changes were introduced after examining the representations of a technical committee at the Directorate General of Health Services, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the release said.

During this process, it was learned that some institutions are already conducting post-mortem at night time. Therefore, given the rapid advancement and improvement in technology, especially the availability of necessary lighting and necessary infrastructure for post-mortem, it is now possible to conduct post-mortem at night in hospitals.

As per the new postmortem protocol, this can be done after sunset for organ donation and in hospitals that have the necessary infrastructure for such postmortems on a regular basis.

Before hospitals are allowed to do so, the fitness and adequacy of the infrastructure will have to be assessed by the hospital in charge to ensure that there is no shortfall in the evidence value. They should also ensure that the postmortems are video-recorded for all the postmortems conducted at night to remove any doubts and the same may be preserved for future reference for legal purposes.

However, for conducting post-mortem in cases of homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies, suspected foul play, etc., the procedure will not be done at night unless there is a law and order situation.

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