Stanley GH doc signs for days, camera catches it

Chennai: Amidst complaints that government medical college staff are bunking their duties and not even attending offices, a video taken on Saturday and accessed by DT Next, showed a lady doctor at Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai signing on an attendance register for days together in one go. “It is not clear if she was signing for herself or someone else,” a staffer from the Stanley Medical College told this paper.

“This kind of malpractice has been happening in all medical colleges and government hospitals for a long time now. And it is still happening despite the Health Secretary filing an affidavit in the court in March claiming biometric attendance is implemented in all hospitals under the administrative control of DME. The Secretary also said it was put on hold for a few months due to the pandemic and has been resumed after the Covid cases dropped,” noted RM Arun Swaminathan, a Madurai-based lawyer fighting against malpractices in the Health department.

In October 2020, the Madurai bench of Madras High Court had said that the government servants shall mark their attendance only through a biometric system while entering as well as at the time of leaving the office including hospitals. The court had also said that based on the biometric attendance only the salary should be paid, after deducting the days for which the employees had not attended subject to their leave entitlement.

“It is also clear that nobody bothered to take seriously even the instructions issued by the Director of Medical Education in February this year following up on the High Court order on various aspects, including biometric attendance,” a senior staff from Stanley GH alleged.

A senior health official, when contacted, said action will be taken against the staff concerned after verifying the authenticity of the video.