K-P fares with lone public mortuary

The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), which encompasses over 35 districts, is forced to rely on a single public mortuary housed within the region’s lone forensic lab.

While the province’s most prominent medical facilities like Haytabad Medical Complex Peshawar, Khyber Teaching Hospital, and Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar have allegedly been faring without access to cold storage for dead bodies.

The Khyber Medical College Forensic Lab, which houses the province’s only public morgue, was established in 1985. It was inaugurated by then Governor Lieutenant General Fazli Haq, whose autopsy was also performed at the facility following his assassination.

According to its chairman Professor Dr Hakim Afridi, Khyber Medical College Forensic Lab has been contributing to education and research in the field for almost four decades now. “We equipped with multiple departments like Autopsy, Examination, Medico-Legal, Sodomy Section, Sciencetification, DNA testing and Toxicology. Our morgue is the only facility of its kind in the entire province, and has the capacity to accommodate a maximum of 60 dead bodies at -20 degrees centigrade,” he informed.

According to Dr Afridi, age estimation is one of the primary responsibilities of doctors involved in medical practice in the public sector. It is an integral procedure aimed at estimating the chronological age of an individual, whose age is either unknown or doubtful, by means of assessing the stage of dental, skeletal, and physical development. “Age determination is also important in criminal investigations,” he added.

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Speaking further, he said that since 2018 the facility has processed over 4,000 DNA samples. “Prior to this, all DNA samples had to be transported to Punjab for processing, which would be very expensive and cost Rs25,000 per test.”

Addressing the dearth of cold storage facilities, the professor said that much of their available capacity is taken by cases sent over from the police, but acknowledging that there is no other facility available, they also take in private admissions of dead bodies.

“If someone wants to store their relative’s dead body, we usually allow it, even if it’s for months,” he told.

Speaking further, he informed that his facility is run using the funds allocated to the Khyber Medical College, to which it is associated. “The health minister recently announced a fund of 50 million rupees for the Reference Lab and we hope that these funds will be released soon by the government so that we can expand our services for which there is a dire need in KP,” he told The Express Tribune.