Bengal health dept prepares SOPs for conducting post-mortem

The West Bengal health and family welfare department has prepared standard operating procedures for conducting medico-legal autopsy in order to provide guidance to doctors and hospitals, an official said on Saturday.

The SOPs have been sent to all medical establishments authorised by the state government to conduct post-mortem examination, according to a notification issued by the department on Friday.

The department had constituted an expert committee to prepare the SOPs to be followed by doctors while conducting the post-mortem examination.

As per the notification, the SOPs stressed on proper infrastructure for medico-legal autopsy centres and have been drawn up on writing and delivering of the post-mortem report.

"The post mortem examination for medico-legal cases are carried out with due care in all the medical colleges and hospitals, district and some sub-divisional hospitals. However, it is felt that there is a need to have a SOP for doctors conducting medico-legal autopsies," a communication issued by the health department, said.