Biometric attendance to be mandatory for all healthcare staff in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Through a recent circular, the Maharashtra Public Health Department has declared that biometric attendance will be mandatory for all medical officers and staff at government medical colleges and hospitals starting from April 1, 2025.

Additionally, they are also required to complete their online biometric registration on the official portal by March 31, 2025, as salary payments will only be disbursed based on biometric or face-reading attendance records.

"If any salary payments are made without following this system, the concerned accounts officer and drawing and disbursing officer will be held responsible and the amount will be recovered from them," reads the circular issued to all deputy directors, district health officers and civil surgeons on March 5.

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This decision was taken to tackle complaints regarding absenteeism among government doctors and hospital staff during duty hours. The department observed that, despite the availability of a biometric system, many doctors had not registered on the portal.

Apart from this, other contributing factors also prompted the officials to take this step, like staff shortages, heavy patient loads, and government doctors engaging in private practice during their duty hours.

According to Health Commissioner Amgothu Shri Ranga Nayak in the order, while a biometric system for attendance has already been introduced, many medical officers and staff have yet to register. He has instructed all deputy directors, district health officers, and civil surgeons to ensure compliance. A deadline of March 31 has been set for online biometric registration, and an online training workshop on the system is scheduled for March 7.

“All medical officers and staff must complete their online biometric registration on the official portal by March 31, 2025. An online training workshop on the face-reading and biometric attendance system will be conducted by the IT department on March 7, 2025,” the health commissioner said in the circular.

Welcoming the move, Dr Nagnath Yempalay, district civil surgeon, Pune district, told HT, "There has been a problem of unavailability of doctors and staff in rural and tribal parts of the state, which leads to hardship for patients. The move will help cut down morbidity and mortality amongst patients through the availability of timely treatment."

However, he claimed that an association of healthcare staff and doctors are opposing the move. He told the Daily, "The primary health centre should have a doctor available round-the-clock and one centre currently has two doctors. Also, there should be a doctor present at all times in rural hospitals, however, one rural hospital has three doctors. The association argues that this situation violates the Supreme Court’s directives as the working hours exceed eight. They are demanding that more doctors be appointed."

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