E-Paper
Fund shortage stalls ₹2-cr autopsy house progress
Even almost three months after a proposal, funds yet to be sanctioned for facilities, sources in the health department said.
Built two years ago, the new state-level postmortem house on the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) campus is now reportedly hit by a fund crunch that has delayed the procurement of essential equipment for the facility.
Even almost three months after the chief medical officer here submitted a budget proposal for facilities worth ₹1.4 crore to the state health directorate, the funds were yet to be sanctioned, sources in the health department said.
On August 19, HT had reported that the 12-table facility built at ₹2 crore in 2023 appeared ‘non-operational’ since no post-mortems or classes were held there during a visit by this reporter. While some infrastructural upgrades have been added since, the building seems far from ready to be fully operational.
Among the facilities or equipment to be added, and for which a proposal was shot off to the directorate on September 1, were a cold room, an X-ray machine, a computer, four cold storages and 12 table spectrographs, the sources said, adding a reminder was sent to the directorate on September 25. They said that KGMU has made available 56 wooden chairs to the facility.
The facility is also lacking on the manpower front. Two years ago, the government sanctioned the posts of 14 staff members, which include two forensic experts and a pharmacist, for the modern post-mortem house. However, they were yet to be filled.
“The CMO’s office has also written to the registrar and vice-chancellor of KGMU to make available the 14 staff members at the new facility,” they further said.
Commenting on the issue, chief medical officer Dr NB Singh said, “We are trying to start the new 12-table postmortem house as soon as possible. This will curb the load on the existing one.”
Confirming that the directorate has received the proposal from the CMO, director general (medical and health) Dr Ratan Pal Singh Suman said necessary action was being taken.
The new facility can handle twice as many cases as the existing one, where around 20 postmortems are performed every day.
