MBBS graduates competent to conduct post mortems, no practical required: MCI in RTI

Nagpur: Dr Indrajit Khandekar, Professor and in-charge, Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) has lamented the fact that the Medical Council of India, (MCI), has not prescribed any practical examination in the curricula, to assess the skill of an MBBS doctor in being able to make observations and interpret findings of a post mortem examination.

RTI queries posed to the Council by the professor and two of his students Savithri Devi and Suprabha Mohanta, pursuing MBBS reveal that MBBS graduates are competent to conduct post mortem examinations without any assessment in practical examinations since 1997.

The RTI further reveals that the apex education regulator has never given a directive to universities to impart medical education to MBBS students by taking a practical assessment/ examination of the student in this regard.

The inquiry further admits that the Council hasn't prescribed any procedure for practical assessment (university exam) to ascertain the skills of an MBBS student about his abilities to make observations and interpret findings of the post mortem.

"Post mortem examination and its report play a very important role in crime investigations. In India, more than 80% post mortems are conducted by MBBS graduates. Still, MCI and affiliated medical universities declared MBBS graduates competent to conduct the major activity of post mortem without any practicals," Dr Khandekar added.

He said post mortem reports that provide incomplete information were unreliable and often led to miscarriage of justice. "Though judiciary blamed doctors for such reports, sole responsibility lies with MCI and its faulty curriculum," he quotes.

"MCI is misleading the nation and criminal investigation system by producing incompetent doctors, as far as post mortem exam is concerned," Dr Khandekar,also a coordinator, is working to improve quality of medico-legal education in the country, since 2010.

Quoting MCI's Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997 (amended up to March 10, 2017), he confessed that one of the objectives of forensic medicine, including toxicology, at the end of the course, was to ensure that the student was able to make observations and interpret findings of the post mortem exam reports TOI.