Sambalpur: Biometric Machine is installed for name, Who will stop the Bunk (ଫେରାରି) doctors?

Sambalpur: In Sambalpur District Headquarters Hospital, the bunked doctors cannot be restrained. The biometric machine is installed. However, due to inefficiency, doctors are coming to the hospital randomly and returning before their duty hours are over.

Patients in neighboring districts bordering Sambalpur district rely on the DHH. Patients come here with high expectations and are deprived of proper medical care. Outpatient hours of doctors start from 8 a.m. There is an official rule that they should serve patients in the OPD until 12:00 p.m. and again from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m in the evening.

Patients wait for doctors in long queues before 8 o’clock. However, most of the doctors do not come to the outpatient department before 9 a.m. and some doctors have left the hospital to see patients before 12 p.m. to private clinics and nursing homes. While patients were waiting in line, some other doctors were leaving the hospital at exactly 12:00. Similarly, many doctors no longer come to the department in the evening.

They are busy earning money in private clinics. Seeing such a system in the DHH, the District Chief Medical and Public Health Officer, Dr. Purnachandra Sahu, thought of installing biometric machines. In less than 2 months, biometric machines have been installed in his office as well as hospitals, Mother and Child Care Centers (MCH), and NHM offices. An expenditure of Rs 2 lakh has been spent on this. But biometric machine is not working because the machine is installed but other compatible system is not yet done.

It is said that there is a conspiracy of those bunked doctors behind it. It is said that the project was deliberately not allowed to be implemented, as doctors arbitrarily coming and going would be stopped once the biometric machines became functional. Seeing such a situation, the doctors and staff who are carrying out their duties with determination are talking jokingly that “biometric machine is installed here only to see, not to attend”.

In this regard, the district chief medical and public health officer, Dr. Purnachandra Sahu, said that the state government has a plan to install biometric machines in all the district chief hospitals by the end of September. He said that if biometric machines are provided by the state government, the biometric machines currently installed here will be installed in Kuchinda and Redhakhol sub-district hospitals.