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.
