PANAJI
In a bid to plug deficiencies in medical reports and opinions of doctors commonly found to impede trials and convictions in medico-legal cases of sexual assault cases, some 25 doctors from government medical institutions including Goa Medical College, north and south district hospitals and the Ponda sub-district hospital were put through an orientation programme earlier this week.
Subjects dealt with at the programme included matters related to taking consent from the victims, medical examination, history taking and documentation besides psycho-social support and rehabilitation of the victims.
GMC’s forensic department head, Prof Andre Fernandes, Associate Professor Dr Mandar Kantak and assistant lecturer Dr Sheryl Soares e Mesquita, were the resource persons at the programme which was facilitated by the Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR).
The orientation programme also dealt with providing care and rehabilitative services and doctors’ response to child victims of sexual violence in a more humane and case-specific manner.
Strengthening the medico-legal response is an important part of preventing and responding to abuse and sexual violence, requires a continuous multisectoral and multifaceted approach, the GSCPCR chairperson Peter F Borges said in a statement after the programme.
The programme suggested decentralisation of medico-legal services and involvement of more registered medical practitioners to improve the ecosystem of medico-legal care, GSCPCR said.
Borges said, the Commission will collaborate with the GMC’s department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology to conduct more such orientation and training programmes for registered medical practitioners in the State
