The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has issued attendance notices to 100 doctors across its five medical colleges after an inspection of biometric records found prolonged absences and single or irregular swipes, while three senior professors at KEM Hospital have sought voluntary retirement following the action.
The notices cover 36 doctors at KEM Hospital in Parel, 30 at Sion Hospital, 24 at Nair Hospital near Mumbai Central, nine at Cooper Hospital in Juhu and one at Nair Dental Hospital. The civic body said the action followed complaints that doctors were unavailable in outpatient departments and other hospital units.
BMC director of medical education Shailesh Mohite told the Times of India that some doctors were allegedly swiping in during the morning and leaving soon afterwards for private hospitals. He said some returned late at night for rounds, disturbing sleeping patients. Mohite said doctors were required to be available for duty from 9 am to 4 pm and that attendance would be monitored more closely.
The notices include KEM Hospital dean Harish Pathak. A doctor at the hospital said three professors leading super-speciality departments had applied for voluntary retirement after receiving notices. A senior BMC official described the applications as possible pressure tactics. Mohite said several doctors had responded to the notices and that the civic administration would review their replies.
The dispute centres on how attendance and performance should be assessed in a public hospital system that depends on specialist medical teachers for both patient care and training. Pathak said biometric attendance was an important administrative mechanism but argued that senior medical teachers should also be assessed through clinical and academic indicators. He cited clinical workload, the number and complexity of procedures and surgeries, patient outcomes, emergency and after-hours services, teaching responsibilities, postgraduate supervision, research and other academic contributions.
BMC had allowed its medical teachers to undertake private practice after 4 pm more than a decade ago, with the stated aim of discouraging them from leaving for higher-paying private hospital affiliations. The present notices have brought that arrangement into renewed focus because the civic body is examining whether doctors are available during mandated working hours.
The issue has also drawn concern from elected representatives. BMC public health committee chairman Harish Bhandirge said the action was intended to ensure that doctors were available to patients, adding that he had seen patients wait for hours when a doctor was unavailable. Sewri corporator Sachin Padwal questioned whether absence during specified hours alone could capture the contribution of experienced doctors whom patients specifically seek out at civic hospitals.
A senior KEM doctor said the hospital provides specialised services and expertise that may not be readily available elsewhere in Mumbai’s public health system. Another doctor said there were many days when doctors spent more than seven hours at the hospital. The BMC’s review of responses to the notices will determine how the attendance findings and the VRS applications are handled.
