An Analysis of Medico Legal Functions Rendered by Non Specialist Medical Officers in the Central Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

<p>Many government medical officers in Sri Lan ka are expected by law to perform all medico-legal duties even though they may not get a practical exposure of all medico-legal functions in their undergraduate curriculum. District Medical Officer (DMO), Medical Officer In Charge (MO-IC), MO-Medico Legal are some non specialist positions in the Ministry of Health that perform med ico-legal functions. There are no formal training provided to these officers to perform medico-legal funct ions other than what they learnt in the undergraduate curriculum (Chandrasiri , 2002; Gooneratne and Edussuriya, 2007). There have been no studies to identify the varying medico-legal functions performed by non specialist medical officers in Sri Lanka. Therefore th is study was designed to understand the varying types, nature and extent of medicolegal duties non specialist medical officers perform in Sri Lanka and their training needs.</p>