CHENNAI: After being reprimanded by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for poor faculty attendance, the TN health and family welfare department has asked all 36 Tamil Nadu government medical colleges to strictly implement biometric attendance system and ensure adequate faculty attendance compliance.

Following the NMC's criticism regarding non-compliance with biometric attendance systems, the state's Health and Family Welfare Department has directed the deans of these colleges to mandate the use of the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) for recording entry and exit times for all faculty members and resident doctors.

The directive came via a letter from the office of the Director of Medical Education and Research (DME) to all government medical college deans. This letter instructed deans to enforce AEBAS usage and submit a compliance report. The DME's action was prompted by a communication from the Health Department's deputy secretary, who cited the NMC highlighting defects in the existing attendance monitoring.

Regulations require all medical colleges to install AEBAS linked to the NMC's command centre since 2023. Furthermore, daily attendance data for required staff, ideally with facial recognition, must be accessible to the NMC and displayed on college websites via a dashboard.

Minimum standards mandate at least 75% attendance for all faculty and senior resident doctors. However, sources indicate that most doctors across TN's government medical colleges are not adhering to these norms. For instance, at Chengalpattu Medical College, which has 581 doctors including residents, the total clocked hours in April 2025 were only 344. This significant shortfall exemplifies the widespread non-compliance issue flagged by the NMC.