(This story originally appeared in on Feb 08, 2016)

CHENNAI: It is rare for staff in government health centres to turn up for work on time, so Corporation of Chennai has come up with an innovative idea to ensure timely attendance of staff working in its urban primary health centres (UPHCs).In an attempt to discipline staff reporting late to work in UPHCs, the Greater Chennai Corporation has started using, since Friday , messaging app WhatsApp. The civic body's zonal health officers and medical officers across the 15 zones have to visit at least two hospitals every day between 8am and 8:30am, ta ke a photograph of the assembled staff and along with attendance details post it in a WhatsApp group.The move comes after patients complained that several doctors, nurses, pharmacists and lab technicians report late to work and leave early . Chennai has 140 UPHCs that function from 8am to 3pm. Each centre treats around 150 patients a day."We have formed a WhatsApp group exclusively to monitor UPHCs and instructed all concerned officers to visit them early in the morning and check whether all staff are present," a senior corporation official said."The idea is to curb absenteeism among the UPHC staff and ensure field inspections by senior health officials. We will be able to track the regular defaulters and prevent tampering of the attendance registers," the official said.Besides UPHCs, the corporation uses WhatsApp to monitor activities including garbage clearance and road work. However, its earlier plan to introduce biometric attendance system for its 30,000-odd employees across 26 departments remains on paper. The corporation is using the biometric system among conservancy workers but is reluctant to introduce it for others after stiff opposi tion from sections of its staff.Interestingly , the Centre has a dedicated website, attendance.gov.in, to monitor working hours of employees working in central government establishments.Sources say severe shortage of staff has affected functioning of UPHCs. TOI recently reported that Falcon Security Services, a human resources firm the corporation had outsourced to hire staff including doctors, pharmacists and nurses in the UPHCs, has filled only 143 of the 477 posts. After the report, the civic body terminated the contract with FSS and floated another tender to recruit staff in UPHCs.