Colleges battle cadaver shortage

SHIMLA: As many as 700 MBBS students are enrolled in medical colleges in Himachal Pradesh every year. But most of them are not getting an opportunity to perform real-time cadaver dissection or virtual cadaver dissection because the colleges lack cadavers as per norms fixed by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital in Shimla.

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 15

As many as 700 MBBS students are enrolled in medical colleges in Himachal Pradesh every year. But most of them are not getting an opportunity to perform real-time cadaver dissection or virtual cadaver dissection because the colleges lack cadavers as per norms fixed by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Hospital has registered 364 persons who have offered to donate their bodies for medical research. But the college has got just five cadavers of which four were unclaimed bodies.

“The five cadavers are of men. MBBS students have no exact knowledge of female anatomy,” said anatomists.

The newly opened medical colleges at Nahan, Nerchowk, Chamba and Hamirpur are looking for cadavers from the IGMC and the PGI, Chandigarh,” revealed sources.

The real or virtual cadavers are mandatory for first-year MBBS students to have the knowledge of real human anatomy, physiology and surgery. The dissection rooms of these colleges are either showcase old museum pieces of human skeleton or antiquated images, they revealed .

“It is a matter of concern as to what kind of medical professionals the state is producing. These colleges have neither faculties, nor well-equipped dissection rooms and infrastructure,” said Dr SK Nanda, state president, Indian Medical Association (IMA).

The IMA always pleaded with the government not to start a medical college without providing enough staff, equipment and facilities for the students, teachers and patients. “But politics behind these colleges remains a main consideration, everybody has to pay the price for this,” Dr Nanda said.

The Department of Medical Education is also to blame as it has no cadaver donation programme. Even doctors and common man refuse cadaver donations due to their religious beliefs”, said an anatomist.

MBBS students rued that they did not have even access to virtual cadavers that gave a three-dimensional view of the human anatomy. “There are not enough teachers, equipment and lab facilities in these colleges,” they added.

Anju Pratap Kaundal, head, Department of Anatomy, IGMC, said: “We do not find any female cadaver due to religious beliefs and same hold true for doctors as well,” said Dr Kaundal.

Dr Kaundal said human cadaver, after it is treated with chemical, could last 15 years or so. “We have set up museum that caters to the needs of the college as the students can learn from parts of skeleton as well. But as per MCI norms, we need a cadaver weather real or virtual for every 10-15 MBBS students,” she added.

Must for first-year course

Real or virtual cadavers are mandatory for first-year MBBS students to have the knowledge of human anatomy, physiology and surgery. The dissection rooms of these colleges are either showcase old museum pieces of human skeleton or antiquated images

Religious beliefs to blame

The Department of Medical Education is also to blame as it has no cadaver donation programme. Even doctors and the common man refuse cadaver donation due to their religious beliefs

Even virtual cadavers inaccessible: Students

MBBS students rue that they do not have even access to virtual cadavers that give a three-dimensional view of the human anatomy. There are not enough teachers, equipment and lab facilities in these colleges