Bio-metric attendance system for doctors, nurses in Odisha hospitals soon

The Odisha government will implement bio-metric attendance system for doctors, nurses and other staff in all district hospitals and medical colleges soon, said State Health secretary Shalini Pandit on Thursday.

According to sources, the bio-metric attendance system will be installed at all district headquarters hospitals and medical colleges on a pilot basis from 2023-24 financial year. Later, it will be extended to all Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres in the next phase.

In fact, the system is already in place at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

"We will be starting a bio-metric attendance system on a pilot basis in all medical colleges and DHHs. Id successful, it will later be extended to all the hospitals including the PHCs and CHCs," said Odisha Health Secretary, Shalini Pandit.  

Similarly, the Odisha government will spend Rs 250 crore to add new 236 ambulances to its 108 amubalce fleet in the 2023-24 fiscal. This will benefit the patients by reducing the time taken for the allotment of the ambulance, the Health Secretary said.

The inclusion is expected to reduce the time taken for an ambulance to reach a patient from earlier 30 minutes to 20 minutes.

Moreover, the Odisha government will open ‘Ama Hospital’ in all 147 Assembly constituencies and they will be operational within nine months. The CHCs, sub-divisional hospitals will be selected and upgraded into ‘Ama Hospital’. A whopping Rs 750 crore will be spent towards the development of these hospitals where the patients will get all basic health care facilities.

Besides, the Odisha government will recruit 5,000 doctors and 9,000 staff nurses in this financial year and by 2024 end every CHC in the State will have an MBBS doctor, said Pandit.

(Reported by Kapilendra Pradhan, OTV)