The health secretariat has decided to introduce the biometric fingerprint attendance system among only senior officials and doctors of all government hospitals and medical colleges in the initial phase. The Group-D employees have been exempted from the first phase fearing an adverse reaction.
"We had started biometric attendance of Group-A officers at the health secretariat from April 2 this year as a pilot project. Initially, officials were not happy with the move. But with time, we found that all were complying with it," said Susanta Bandyopadhyay, director, medical education and ex-officio secretary of the health department.
"We will include all categories of officials and personnel in this biometric attendance mechanism. But it will be done in a phased manner. If we include the Group-D and paramedical employees initially, there is bound to be severe resistance which might affect the whole project," added Bandyopadhyay.
In any medical college or hospital, the Group-A employees consist of the principal, medical superintendent, deputy superintendent, nursing superintendent, deputy nursing superintendent, medical officers and departmental heads, while those in group-D are nurses, paramedics and contractual employees. Sources in the health department said that the number of Group-D employees is almost double that of Group-A.
For example at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital with 1250 beds have 462 doctors including professors and medical officers. There are 530 nurses, 407 Group - D employees, 301contractual employees. The situation is similar at almost all hospitals.
"We have initially asked the authorities of SSKM Hospital, Burdwan Medical College and MR Bangur Hospital to keep the list of employees, to be monitored by the biometric machine, ready within the next ten days. The training will start as soon as possible," said Asit Biswas, spokesperson of the health department.
