BENGALURU: DECEMBER 05, 2016 00:00 IST
To crack down on doctors posing as ghost faculty in medical colleges and ensure they do not indulge in private practice during working hours, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has initiated the process of implementing centralised “Online Faculty Attendance Monitoring System” (OFAMOS).
The move, part of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s Digital Mission Mode Project (DMMP), aims at bringing in transparency and accountability of faculty attendance. It will be implemented from the coming academic year.
The MCI, which issued a circular in this regard on November 22, has directed deans and principals of all medical colleges in the country to ensure that the attendance of doctors is recorded through biometric fingerprint system twice a day.
Ghost faculty
So far, medical colleges (both government and private) have been arranging ghost faculty, who are not on the rolls, during annual MCI inspections of colleges for recognition, approval and renewal.
MCI executive committee member H.N. Ravindra said there have been several complaints about many private medical colleges not having any real faculty in critical subjects, especially in postgraduate courses of super-specialised degrees. Also, the MCI has noted that some doctors indulge in private practise during working hours.
Aadhaar-linked
“Based on the complaints, MCI set up a committee that recommended a centralised Aadhaar-linked attendance system to ensure quality medical education,” he said.
While the issue of ghost faculty is high in private medical colleges, doctors indulging in private practise is more rampant in government medical colleges across the country, he said.
The MCI has mandated installation of biometric fingerprint attendance machines to capture faculty attendance using OFAMOS on the college premises. Each college will have multiple machines to facilitate easy access to the faculty, the circular stated.
However, Director of Medical Education S. Sacchidanand told The Hindu that the system of arranging for ghost faculty in government medical colleges during annual inspections had come down drastically now as the government had recruited the required number of faculty in most colleges.
“The vacancy is less than 10 per cent in the colleges and that too at the junior level, and deficiency up to 20 per cent is permissible during inspections,” he said.
One-time registration
According to the MCI circular, every medical college has to make a one-time registration of all faculty in OFAMOS. The colleges should also make available faculty data along with Aadhaar details for verification at the time of registration.
While the initial cost of biometric devices will be borne by the council, the maintenance will be done by colleges. “As the Union Health Ministry is keen to implement DMMP, every college has to strictly comply with the new rule failing which they will face action,” the circular said.
The move aims
at bringing in transparency and accountability of faculty attendance
