Delay in medical reports hampers investigations

HYDERABAD: It is well known that investigation and trials in police cases can be very slow. It is learnt that one of the biggest reason behind it is the delay in submitting medical or autopsy reports by the government doctors.

According to sources, around 4,000 medical reports are awaited from the medical and health department for completion of investigation or trial in various cases across the state.  The courts and the SC and ST Commission to have expressed displeasure over the delay in getting these reports.
In some cases, charge sheets are filed after almost two months. On several occasions, the courts too have pulled up officials for the abnormal delay in filing charge sheets.

In accidental deaths, the investigation and the compensation to be paid to the families of the victims too is delayed due to lack of postmortem reports. Due to lack of coordination among transport, medical and police departments, the investigation into the cases is being delayed.

In this backdrop, DGP M Mahender Reddy discussed the issue with Chief Secretary SK Joshi at the Secretariat on Tuesday. According to sources, the DGP suggested several measures which would ensure speedy investigations.

It was discussed at the meeting that government doctors, due to the overload of work, were unable to submit the reports on time. In some cases, the required report from a government doctor was not available even after three months of the incident.  In some cases, transfers of doctor is the causes behind this delay.

The Chief Secretary said that he would soon convene a state-level meeting with the medical and health department officials. Joshi directed the district Collectors to convene district-level meetings with medical and health officials to get medical reports at the earliest.

The delay in submitting reports by government doctors is not limited to one particular hospital and it is common across the state. “District level hospitals, Vaidya Vidhan Parishad hospitals, Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi hospital and doctors of other hospitals too are responsible for the delay in submitting the reports,” according to an official.

The Chief Secretary and the DGP felt that an online system should be developed for monitoring the issue with the coordination of all the departments concerned.