Chandigarh, February 28: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has found an antidote to illegible handwriting of government doctors preparing reports. It has made it mandatory for the doctors in Punjab, Haryanya and Chandigarh to prepare medico legal reports (MLRs) and post-mortem reports (PMRs) using web-based software.
The court says doctors used to prepare MLRs and PMRs by hand, which is “very difficult to read”. As such, web-based software “MedLEaPR” has been developed to ensure computer-generated reports.Heading the computer committee of the High Court, Justice Rajesh Bindal says progress in this regard is being regularly monitored.
“This software, being generic and developed by the NIC, can be used by any state. It provides instant access to MLRs and PMRs, and removes any ambiguity in reading the reports, besides ensuring its authenticity and integrity,” Justice Bindal adds.
“The reports are in the process of being digitally signed and integrated with the court file.”
Information suggests 3.5 lakh MLRs in Haryana, 4 lakh in Punjab and 1.5 lakh in Chandigarh have been prepared for using the software. No less than 1 lakh PMRs have been prepared using the technology in Haryana, 1.5 lakh in Punjab and 50,000 in Chandigarh.
Justice Bindal adds after successful rollout of “MedLEaPR” and noticing delay in testing and collection of reports from the laboratories, another software was developed through the NIC.“Receipt, processing and preparation of test reports have been automated. The police official concerned is updated about the status through SMS,” says Justice Bindal.
The status can also be checked on website. All laboratories in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh have been connected. Bar coding of samples to maintain secrecy and digital signatures and linking with the court file was in progress.
A Division Bench of the High Court had, in 2011, reminded the doctors that they were not scrawling on documents for self-consumption; and even asked the directors of health services in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to ensure the element of legibility was injected into their handwriting.The directions by the Division Bench of Justice Satish Kumar Mittal and M Jeyapaul came during the hearing of an appeal filed by a convict in a double-murder appeal.
Source Tribune India
