Bihar Health Services Association Doctors to stage protest over mandatory biometric attendance
The communique stated, "If the government still does not heed the demands, the doctors will boycott outdoor patient department work on October 6 while attending to emergency duty."
Patna: Government doctors associated with the Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) have decided to go to work by wearing black badges on September 29 and October 5 as a protest against the state health department's decision to not revoke the linking of the biometric attendance with their salary, said a communique issued by BHSA.
The announcement was issued by Dr. Ranjeet Kumar, BHSA general secretary who stated that the decision to wear black badges was taken after the BHSA core committee meeting.
The communique stated, "If the government still does not heed the demands, the doctors will boycott outdoor patient department work on October 6 while attending to emergency duty."
The health department has recently made biometric attendance compulsory. The decision is opposed by government doctors, especially those posted at the level of sadar (district) hospital and below alleging that it would affect their working life. Due to the shortage of medical practitioners, the doctors manage their duties through mutual arrangements with their colleagues, reports the Hindustan Times.
However, they are saying that they would no longer have the flexibility to mutually alter and adjust their working hours after the introduction of the biometric attendance system. Dr. Hasra Abbas, a core committee member of the BHSA from the Nalanda district said, "There are only around 5,600 doctors against 13,800 sanctioned posts. Doctors have to work for 12 to 24 hours at a stretch sometimes. We are not averse to biometric attendance. All that we are demanding is that the government should fill up the vacancies, give us a non-practicing allowance and also implement the old pension scheme."
Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported about the order of the National Medical Commission (NMC) directing all the medical colleges to implement Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) and Hospital Management System (HMS) within August 2022 with an aim to find an effective and convenient digital solution to record the attendance of faculties.
