Despite vacancies in government medical college hospitals in T.N., forensic doctors work at primary health centres

Instead of performing autopsies and handling medico-legal cases for which they were trained, eight forensic medicine doctors are treating coughs and fevers at primary health centres (PHCs) in Tamil Nadu. This comes at a time when over 70 posts of assistant professors and senior residents in forensic medicine remain vacant in government medical college hospitals.

Due to the absence of a dedicated entry route into the Tamil Nadu medical service for specialists, many postgraduates (MD/MS) have entered through the Medical Services Recruitment Board (MRB) exam held for the post of assistant surgeon (general) requiring an MBBS degree.

Like many other specialists, these doctors — who completed an MD in forensic medicine — qualified through the 2025 MRB exam and were posted to PHCs under the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

At PHCs, their work primarily includes treating general outpatients with complaints such as fever and cough and conducting antenatal check-ups and school screenings, some of the doctors said.

Lack of options

“As forensic medicine doctors, we are trained to handle medico-legal cases, conduct autopsies, estimate age, examine accused persons in sexual offence cases, and serve as expert witnesses. But with the special MRB exam (for specialists) scrapped years ago, we had no choice but to join through the MRB exam for assistant surgeons. Most of us had already worked in the government sector as Non-Service Postgraduates (NSPGs) during our bond period, but options that used to be available for absorbing and regularising NSPGs were discontinued,” a doctor said. Some months ago, several specialists — obstetrician-gynaecologists, paediatricians, and anaesthetists — recruited through MRB and posted at PHCs were transferred to government hospitals under the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS). “Even last week, some general medicine and general surgery doctors were moved to DMS institutions through counselling. Nearly 350 doctors have been transferred, but we were left out despite repeated appeals to be posted to medical college hospitals,” another doctor said.

There are 265 sanctioned posts in forensic medicine departments across government medical colleges, with over 70 posts of assistant professors and senior residents still vacant. Even after 20 in-service doctors joining after October, many posts will remain unfilled, the doctors added.

Sources said the Health Department could hold counselling to post incoming service doctors and specialist doctors recruited through the 2025 MRB exam, so that the opportunities and seniority of the former remained unaffected and the vacant posts of specialists filled.

Health officials said they would look into the issue. The department is examining batch-wise lists (to fill vacancies), and one batch of service doctors will complete their course in October.