Profs at MMC’s forensic wing skip work, manipulate registers

Even as Madras High Court has asked the government to install biometric attendance system in all State-run hospitals to make sure all doctors attend duty on time, an enquiry was carried out by the Health Department following allegations that senior professors of the forensic wing at the prestigious Madras Medical College, were absent for several days together.

This newspaper was in possession of attendance registers which revealed that the senior professors were signing the registers in one go on the last day of the month with the supervisors turning a blind eye.

The enquiry into the attendance malpractice began after the Chief Minister’s cell received a tip-off about the absenteeism of the senior professors. The malpractice, happening at the highest office of the forensic wing which assists the judiciary in all medico-legal cases in the State, has left many Health Department officials shocked, sources said. “The registers clearly showed the dereliction in duty at a time when the court has insisted that biometric attendance system be installed in all hospitals and offices under the Health Department,” a source said. When contacted, Dr E Theranirajan, dean, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, denied all allegations. “There was an anonymous letter received in the matter and we made an enquiry. It was found that the allegations were false and no further investigation is being done,” he told DT Next.

Sources said that senior officers at the forensic wing were hardly present and it was not clear who was charting duties for absentee staff. The wing has nothing to do with treatment of patients, but is the basic support system of hundreds of medico-legal cases handled by various courts in the State.