The forensic medicine department of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College in Barisal has been run by only three or two doctors for around 47 years, hampering the academic activities, autopsies as well as examination of rape victims.

Although there has been a total of ten posts, eight of them lying vacant, said Dr Akhtaruzzaman Talukdar, assistant professor and acting head of the department which started in 1968.

The vacant posts are a professor, an associate professor, an assistant professor, three lecturers, a male medical officer and a female medical officer.

Currently, Dr Akhtaruzzaman and Dr Shammi Aktar, a lecturer, are serving the department.

Of them, Dr Shammi has been on a three-month training leave since February 1, exacerbating the crisis.

These two teachers have to run the academic activities and conduct the tests at the same time, said Dr Kamrul Hasan Selim, director of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital.

On an average 350 postmortems and more than 100 rape tests are conducted annually under this department, said Dr Akhtaruzzaman, adding that the figures were increasing.

It takes three to four months for delivering reports of autopsies and one to two months for other tests due to shortage of manpower, he said, adding that there was no official time limit in this regard.

Usually, such reports without any chemical test are delivered within one to two weeks from Dhaka Medical College and Chittagong Medical College.

Besides, there is no official post for mortuary assistant; the job to cut up bodies is arranged on a contractual basis, he added.

"The body of my uncle Bipul Chakraborty, who was murdered in Wazirpur of Barisal on January 1 this year, was taken to the morgue on that day, but the autopsy report is yet to be released," said Asim Chakraborty, nephew of the deceased.

He said the higher authorities had been informed of the crisis many times, but to no avail.

Dr Bhaskar Saha, principal of the college, said last a letter regarding the manpower shortage had been sent to the Directorate General of Health Services on January 4 this year, but any response is yet to come.

When asked about the reason behind such crisis, Md Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury, director (administration) of DGHS, told The Daily Star that the government-appointed medical officers from BCS cadres were less interested to serve forensic department considering different legal complexity like attending courts and testifying on the reports. "The same situation is prevailing in other medical colleges except Dhaka and Chittagong."

"The government should take special steps to overcome the crisis," he said.