Cuttack: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has issued a fresh notification making biometric attendance system mandatory for doctors at the government-run medical colleges in India, including SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) here.
Now, doctors are required to give their biometric attendance three times a day – at 9 am, 2pm and 5pm. A dedicated software has been developed by MCI which will detect the thumb impression and help the MCI officials in New Delhi to monitor the attendance of doctors at SCBMCH. The initiative is expected to thwart the private medical practice of doctors, during official hours, sources said.
The MCI had earlier published a notification regarding attendance through biometric system in August 2017. However, a majority of medical colleges continued to give this rule a go-by.
The latest notification has made biometric attendance system at medical colleges compulsory.
It was alleged that many a times doctors of various departments at SCBMCH were coming to the premier healthcare facility at their own sweet will. Patient care had taken a beating at the premier healthcare facility, said sources.
Although the biometric attendance system was introduced at SCBMCH under National Health Mission (NHM) in 2011, it was alleged that these machines were damaged purposefully.
“A control monitoring system is being developed by the MCI for the purpose. We will make this system operational after MCI provides us with the machines,” said SCBMCH superintendent CBK Mohanty.
