April 17: “Why only us?” seems to be the reaction of government doctors in the state, who are up in arms over the biometric attendance system that the health department proposes to implement within three weeks. The Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association (TNGDA) has placed their dissent on record, pushing for the implementation of the system for all government staff in all departments and not only hospitals.
Health minister M.R.K. Panneerselvam recently announced the introduction of a biometric attendance system, which will clock doctors entry and exit timings, to keep a tab on doctors, some of whom reportedly sneak out to work at private clinics during duty hours. Last week, the director of medical education had suspended three doctors at Vellore Government Hospital after a surprise inspection found them absent during duty hours.
“While we are not against the attendance system, it is unfair that government doctors alone have to comply and not the staff of other departments, like the railways. We would welcome the move if it was implemented for all hospital staff, right from the security personnel and ayahs to the administrators,” said NGDA secretary S. Kasi.
“It is not a viable system, as doctors in intensive care and critical care cannot have fixed duty hours. Some of us surgeons operate for 6 to 7 hours at a stretch. We are on call for emergency surgeries and have to come in earlier and leave later than others,” said TNGDA president P. Balakrishnan.
“Government doctors also have other responsibilities outside.We have to leave the hospital for court duty, VIP duty, attend to emergencies at PHCs and chip in for the various schemes like leprosy screening and school health programmes. This system does not consider all these commitments, as we were not consulted first,” said Dr Balakrishnan.
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