Hyderabad: Shortage of cadavers hits anatomy teaching in private medical colleges

Due to the shortage of cadavers in Hyderabad city, private medical colleges are facing difficulty in teaching anatomy to medicos.

Long-standing corruption allegations and vague guidelines to secure unclaimed bodies from morgues have resulted in a shortage of cadavers in private medical colleges and this has badly hit the anatomy teaching.

As per reports, after the National Medical Commission (NMC) mandated that each class receive one cadaver for study, the demand for cadavers increased and some private medical colleges had to pay large sums to get cadavers in the Hyderabad city.

"Private hospitals have to pay an outrageous sum of INR 60,000 to secure a body held at the mortuaries of Gandhi and Osmania Hospitals. Since most private hospitals rely on NGOs to arrange for bodies from rural areas, many cadavers that could have been used are being wasted at the morgues," said Dr Mahender Reddy, head of the forensic department at Kamineni Hospital, as reported by Deccan Chronicle.

Corruption made it difficult to secure Cadavers

Prof M Srinivas, dean of the ESIC Medical College said that in 2016 when he assumed the position, he attempted to get cadavers for the hospital by contacting the forensics and police departments, but was unable to do so. "I then realised that certain people were receiving bodies at a higher cost. They entirely ceased providing bodies once this corruption was made public,” he claimed.

Currently, the state government does not have any clear guidelines for getting the unclaimed bodies and municipal corporations cremate unclaimed bodies after completing the due procedure. “Many medical colleges are coming up in the state now, and all of them will need cadavers,” said the President of Telangana state JUDA unit Dr N Karthik.

"We are trying to devise some way of liberalising the practice so that bodies which are not examples of mysterious deaths can be used for dissection. Right now, the only way to obtain corpses is through donations," said Dr K Ramesh Reddy, director of medical education.

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