India: Mumbai doctors working in public hospitals to mark biometric attendance to cut patients’ wait time

Starting Wednesday (Dec 20), all the doctors working in India’s financial city Mumbai’s four big Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hospitals will be using biometric system for marking attendance. This is the first time that this has been introduced in the hospitals. This has been done to cut on patient wait time and long queues.

All the concerned doctors have to mandatory reach the hospital and do their biometric verification to log their attendance and start the OPD schedule. The notice has been issued to key hospitals like KEM, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital, BYL Nair and RN Cooper in Mumbai.

The BMC circular states, “Commencing at 8:00 am, all major medical municipal hospitals will enforce mandatory biometric registration for doctors upon entry and exit. This biometric attendance system will be intricately tied to the salary of every doctor through SAP.”

Add WION as a Preferred Source

In fact, the BMC Commissioner Dr Sudhakar Shinde has asked the Deans of all these institutions to implement the orders.

Dr Shinde says, “This was one of the oldest issues in the public hospitals, absence or unavailability of senior doctors on time leading to patients waiting for long hours. This tardiness contributes to a backlog, causing patients to endure long queues. This situation further inconveniences patients who have travelled from distant areas.”

All the four hospitals see a footfall of over 10,000 patients from various parts of Maharashtra. And majority of them travel from locations outside Mumbai, approximately 50-60 km.

“If doctors and concerned department are late and not on time, then registration and documentation takes time. And beyond 1 pm, they are turned away as the OPD hours concludes. This always leads to delay in treatment as well,” says concerned official from the health department.

Installing biometric system will lead doctors to improve their time-management, matching their schedules with the convenience of patients rather than their commitments to other work.

Also watch |Rift in the INDIA bloc? Leaders divided over the opposition's PM face

On the first day of the implementation, all the OPDs witnessed doctors coming on time leading to starting registrations on time. There was significant reduction of the crowd till conclusion hours of the OPD as all the patients were treated on time.

On the other hand, during Dr Shinde’s visit to the mentioned hospitals, it has also been alleged that several senior doctors run their personal clinic close by and leave the OPD ahead of closing time.

Dr Shinde says, all the allegations will be checked and if anyone is found guilty then serious charges will be initiated against the concerned doctor.