Telangana to roll out face-based attendance system for medical staff

Hyderabad: The health and family welfare department is likely to introduce a face-based Aadhaar authentication system for marking attendance in the first week of May. The new system will be rolled out for the staff of all 638 PHCs, 248 UPHCs, and 468 basti dawakhanas in the state, as well as in the medical colleges.
Officials said the move will bring transparency and authenticity to the attendance system. The system will record both entry and exit times, but only while the faculty member is physically present within the college or hospital premises.

Doctors and staff will have to enrol their names, institution names, and Aadhaar card details in a mobile application. One will face a pay cut if they do not adhere to the new system.
Recently, health minister Damodar Rajanarasimha conducted a surprise check at the Gandhi Hospital and found several doctors and staff absent during duty hours. He directed the officials to implement a stringent attendance system.
B Ravinder Nayak, director of public health (DPH), Telangana, said, "The main aim of this move is to see that everybody attends their duties on time at their respective institutions. This will help in providing qualitative services to the public."
In medical colleges, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has mandated the introduction of the new system. This comes after the detection of several malpractices, such as ghost faculty being listed on records, duplication of faculty across institutions, and the use of silicon thumbprints to manipulate attendance logs. Telangana currently has 65 medical colleges — 36 govt-run and 29 private.
"The new system will provide a more reliable and tamper-proof attendance mechanism. It will also ensure that there is no duplication of faculty between institutions. It will help in preventing the inclusion of non-existent (ghost) faculty on payroll and regulatory records. Doctors have been assured that there's no need for apprehension as it's a norm set by the NMC," said an official from the director of medical education (DME) office.