CHANDIGARH: All staff members in Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, will have to file attendance using facial recognition system. UT health secretary Yashpal Garg has issued the orders after he found some employees absent during duty hours at night during a surprise inspection last month.
The system is in place for some of the UT administration offices, including the hospitality sector and the Chandigarh Housing Board. “The system has been developed in these offices, where we are able to get real-time based attendance data of all employees. It is based on facial recognition. The same will be applied in hospitals as well,” said Garg. He said, “Next week, there will be a review meeting and the date for installation of the system at GMCH shall be taken.”
Last month, Garg during his surprise night inspection had found there was no emergency medical officer available in GMCH . Security guard supervisor was not checking visitors in an emergency and busy surfing internet on his phone. Besides the facial recognition for attendance, the health department will also be paperless. “We are also working on the online OPD registration using sampark centre. One such centre is in use, subsequently all esamparks will be used for the online registration,” said Garg.
Sources said Government Multi-specialty Hospital, Sector 16, has already started the facial recognition system. There has been opposition regarding this system in the medical college. “Some five years ago, the then Medical Council of India had provided biometric attendance devices to the GMCH, to be used for students and faculty. However, it was not used,” said a faculty member in GMCH.
