KOCHI: Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) has announced the opening its new Advance block with a viewing gallery and cold storage as well as separate rooms for police inquest, relatives of the deceased, and visitors. Dr Arul R B Krishna, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law & Order and Traffic), inaugurated the new facility.

This new advancse autopsy centre equipped with 24-hour CCTV surveillance and recording facility. As per the RTI data, approximately 12,680 medico-legal autopsies were conducted in government hospitals in the state in 2014, Out of these, only 4,850 were performed by Forensic experts, who have an MD in Forensic Medicine.

The new centre is expected to prove to be a great help to perform autopsies in medico-legal cases, as there is hardly few centres of Advance autopsies in the country

Speaking with the media, Dr. V V Pillay, Head, Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, AIMS said, “Not many people know about it, but we are the only private medical college hospital in Kerala, which is authorised to perform medico-legal autopsies (post-mortem). In fact, we have several police stations attached to the hospital for the purpose. All autopsies are done at our hospital free of cost as a public service.The addition of state-of-the-art facilities, which hardly exist elsewhere in the state, has made our Autopsy Block among the best in India. I appeal to the police and relatives of the deceased to put it to full use to reduce the heavy autopsy burden on government hospitals and avoid needless travel and wait.”

Further speaking about the opening of new advanced autopsy centre, DCP of the area said, “The over-burdened government medical colleges in the state cannot fulfil our requirement for medico-legal autopsies. On the other hand, the same facility in private medical colleges is lying unutilised. A well-equipped Autopsy Block like the one at Amrita Hospital gives police the critical support it needs in medico-legal cases. It is a welcome addition to the autopsy capability of the state, and the City Police will try to fully utilise the facility to reduce the burden on government hospitals."