Doctors have demanded that private medical colleges be allowed to perform autopsy, claiming that they have human resources and required skills to conduct the procedure. 

At present only government hospitals and a few non-government hospitals are allowed to perform autopsy. Many rural districts face problems of post-mortem in the absence of government doctors in district hospitals and a majority of the post-mortem is conducted by MBBS graduates.

“We have 42 forensic doctors working in various medical colleges across the country. Instead of asking an MBBS graduate to perform autopsy, the government can use of forensic experts lying idle in medical colleges,” said Dr Harihar Wasti, professor of forensic medicine at the Institute of Medicine (IoM), addressing the first Annual General Meeting of Medicolegal Society of Nepal (Melson). The meeting also selected Dr Wasti as Melson president. One of major tasks of Melson, Dr Wasti said, would be to pressure the government to allow private medical colleges to conduct autopsy since such procedures are performed by experts employed at the colleges. 

“The state is not sensitive to our profession despite being such an important part of justice delivery system,” said Dr Wasti, adding that utilising forensic experts of private medical colleges will reduce burden on government hospitals. Doctors speaking at the AGM, however, hold a view that forensic remains a less attractive branch of medicine. Apart from the IoM and the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, they pointed out, other seats including three MD for forensic medicine in the Kathmandu University, did not get applications. Even the IoM had only one student enrolled last year in master’s programme run by its Forensic Department.