The government is turning to geofencing and other digital technologies to ensure the regular attendance of doctors and health workers at public hospitals, with plans to link attendance records to salaries, leave and promotions.

Geofencing is a technology that uses Global Positioning System (GPS) or mobile network data to create a virtual boundary around a specific area and automatically detect when a person or device enters or leaves it.

Authorities will also regularly prepare lists of the best- and worst-performing (five percent each) health facilities based on performance and take incentive or disciplinary measures accordingly.

The decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman during his visit to the health ministry on July 20.

In a letter issued on July 29, the Health Services Division instructed all its agencies to implement all the decisions taken at the meeting and submit progress reports by August 15.

The prime minister is scheduled to review the progress on August 25, according to the document.

In his first visit to the health ministry, the prime minister had given several directives regarding the measles and dengue situation, health infrastructure and management, but the issue of doctors’ attendance at public hospitals was discussed for nearly an hour, a participant of the meeting told this correspondent on that day.

Officials at the meeting said although biometric attendance systems have been introduced in many government health facilities, they cannot yet be monitored and analysed centrally, the document reads.

Hospital directors also reported that biometric attendance alone has not been sufficient, as some staff members leave their workplaces after registering their attendance.

To address the problem, the meeting proposed introducing geo-fencing to verify that doctors and health workers stay at their assigned workplaces.

The meeting also discussed integrating attendance data with the government’s IBAS++ system so that salary, leave, promotion and other administrative decisions are linked to attendance records in line with government service rules.

IBAS++ is the government’s Integrated Budget and Accounting System through which salaries and other service benefits are managed.

The meeting also proposed analysing attendance data from all government health facilities to identify the best- and worst-performing (five percent each) facilities, enabling authorities to take timely administrative measures.

The prime minister, at the meeting, said it was unacceptable for patients to visit government hospitals and fail to find doctors on duty, stressing that all officials and employees of taxpayer-funded institutions must remain present during official working hours.

He directed authorities to introduce an integrated attendance management system combining biometric attendance, geofencing and digital monitoring, and to establish a real-time dashboard to enable the central monitoring of attendance at all public hospitals every day.

As such, the meeting decided to make biometric systems fully operational and introduce geofencing within 30 days. Attendance records will be integrated with IBAS++, linking them to salaries, leave and promotions. Authorities will also rank the top and bottom five percent of health facilities by performance for incentives or disciplinary measures.

Contacted, Prof Pravath Chandra Biswas, directorate general of Directorate General of Health Services, said they have already instructed officials and heads of health facilities at the upazila, district and national levels to ensure the regular and documented attendance of doctors and health workers.

“We have informed them through official notices, online meetings and various seminars and are constantly encouraging them to ensure attendance is more regular and properly documented,” he said.

He said the issue of attendance is now included as a regular agenda item at weekly and monthly meetings, adding that the efforts had already resulted in noticeable improvements at many health facilities.

Asked about the introduction of geofencing technology, he said the technical guidelines had yet to be issued.

“This is a technical matter. We have not yet received the instructions on how the system will track attendance or how it will be implemented. We are waiting for those guidelines.”