NEW DELHI:The Union Health Ministry on Monday allowed hospitals to perform post-mortem even after sunset with adequate infrastructure and facilities. The new post-mortem rules will be effective from Monday onwards.
The new procedure will also promote organ donation and transplant, as organs can be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure, said the Health Ministry. The protocol stipulates that post-mortems for organ donation be taken up on priority and be conducted even after sunset at the hospitals which have the infrastructure for conducting them on a regular basis.
The fitness and adequacy of the infrastructure at the hospitals for post-mortem shall be assessed by the hospital-in-charge to ensure that there is no dilution of evidentiary value.
The Health Ministry said that video recording will be done for all post-mortems conducted at night to rule out any suspicion and for future reference for legal purposes.
"In response to the multiple references that have been received by the Health Ministry from various sources and in line with the government's commitment to promote ease of living by reducing the burden imposed due to compliance to government processes, changes have been made in the post-mortem protocols to allow for the procedure to be conducted after sunset effective from today, " the ministry said.
The ministry further said that it has been ascertained that some institutes are already performing night-time post-mortems. In view of the rapid advancement and improvement in technology, especially the availability of required lighting and infrastructure required for post-mortems, performing night time post-mortem in hospitals is now feasible.
However, cases under categories such as homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies and suspected foul play should not be subjected for post-mortem during night time, unless there is a law and order situation.