SPS Hospital staff in Ludhiana resent biometric attendance

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 7

Doctors and employees of SPS Hospital are anguished as they have to mark their attendance on a biometric machine. They feel all the more threatened given the fact that many of its employees have tested positive for Covid-19.

According to sources, nearly 37 staff members of the hospital have tested positive for Covid and more than 60 are under quarantine at present. Still, the hospital authorities have made the biometric attendance compulsory.

The biometric attendance was stopped at the hospital in March after the government issued Covid guidelines. The practice was resumed in mid-May and in June, it was made compulsory to mark attendance on the machine at entry and exit.

With many staff members testing positive, the employees and doctors now hesitate to mark their attendance on the machine.

A senior doctor, on the condition of anonymity, said: “We receive many patients everyday and one never knows who can be positive. We also have to do duties at Sirsa. The hospital management should understand their responsibility and should do away with the biometric system of attendance, as it is a threat during these Covid times,” he said.

He said whenever they went on official visits to other centres or on deputation, they were asked to mark attendance on the machine there also.

Another doctor from the hospital said the government had already recommended doing away with the biometric system of attendance. Why is the hospital administration imposing such rules on them? “How will we take care of patients when we ourselves are under stress,” said a doctor.

The chief operating officer of SPS Hospital, Dr Jatinder Arora, said they had to maintain discipline in the hospital and need to know whether the staff was coming on time.

“It is very difficult to keep a record of the time of entry and exit of the staff members. Besides, we have two options for marking attendance on the machine — finger-touch and face-recognition. A hand rub is always kept near the machine so that one can sanitise the hands after marking his or her attendance,” said Dr Arora.

Most employees, however, said the face-recognition mode did not work.