Directive on entry, exit attendance faces criticism among government doctors

A recent directive from the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) and Research requiring all faculty and resident doctors of government medical colleges to mark their entry and exit on the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) has drawn flak among a section of government doctors.

An official communication from the Health department said the deans of 36 government medical colleges had submitted the rectification report for defects pointed out by the National Medical Commission (NMC). NMC had issued show cause notices citing deficiencies in faculty and services.

The department asked the DME to request the respective deans to make entry and exit mandatory in AEBAS. Following this, the directorate asked deans of all government medical colleges to take necessary action to make entry and exit mandatory in AEBAS for all faculty and resident doctors.

A. Ramalingam, general secretary of Service Doctors and Post-Graduates Association (SDPGA), said they strongly opposed the directive as “such tactics were to divert their inefficiencies, leading to show cause notices from NMC”.

“We are willing to streamline medical education as proposed by NMC for the benefit of students and the system. But it should be in its entirety. Only implementing attendance without addressing the faculty strength, job functions, and pay structure is not correct. NMC proposes a pay scale for government doctors on par with the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences faculty. It also says resident doctors should provide 24-hour service to patients. But here, we do not have the cadre of junior and senior residents, and assistant professors do the work. In addition, NMC considers Saturdays as non-working days along with Sundays, but we work on Saturdays,” he explained.

SDPGA demanded the State government to implement the pay scale similar to AIIMS faculty, post adequate senior and junior residents to take care of 24 hour patient care and grant compensation for extra work done beyond duty hours before insisting on exit attendance, he added.

A government doctor, who did not want to be named, said that NMC mandates only once a day biometric entry, and marking twice is not mandatory. “NMC has pointed to severe staff shortage in many institutions but instead of addressing it, the government is diverting the issue and blaming doctors’ attendance,” he said.

A senior doctor added that NMC’s insistence on AEBAS was to ensure there were no ghost and part-time faculty in medical colleges. “NMC mandates an attendance of 75% of the total working days for all faculty and resident doctors. The directorate should keep this in mind and create posts to ensure that they meet the NMC requirements. Instead, rules are being tweaked here,” he said.