KOCHI
: On one hand, the state government’s vaccination drive has come to a standstill due to unavailability of Covid vaccines, while on the other, over 6 lakh vaccines are still available with private hospitals in the state. The state government has now written to private hospitals to use up their vaccine stocks to ensure that the state gets its vaccine quota.
The
Kerala government is planning to administer at least the first dose to maximum beneficia- ries before Onam on August 21, Dr Rathan Kelkar, executive director of state health agency (SHA) has stated in a letter to the private hospitals.
“In order to demand more vaccine from GoI (Government of India), the state has to utilize the maximum of received vaccines. In this scenario, it is requested that all hospitals have to schedule more number of sessions and administrate maximum number of doses per day,” he said in the letter. There are around 29,040 doses of
Covaxin and 6,66,345 doses of
Covishield unused in 106 private hospitals. The letter, sent on July 26 — when vaccine stock in government hospitals here exhausted — further added that the
Centre
is monitoring vaccination details like daily vaccination count, balance stock etc., of hospitals and has requested the state government to “administrate the maximum of private hospitals stock as soon as possible”.
A private hospital, on average, vaccinates around 300-500 persons, with large hospitals vaccinating 700 plus persons by organizing special camps. After implementation of GoI’s new vaccination policy in May 2021, so far, private hospitals have administered 12,24,599 doses.
Sources said that despite vaccine shortage in government hospitals, there is a reluctance among people to get vaccinated at a private hospital. “This is due to the cost factor involved. Many are willing to wait for free vaccine provided by the government,” said Dr M I Sahadulla, chairman and MD,
KIMS Healthcare Group
and president of Association of Healthcare Providers India (Kerala chapter). While Covaxin is priced at Rs1,410 in a private hospital, it is Rs 780 for Covishield.
However, private hospital managements are unable to understand the connection between vaccine availability in private hospitals and the state demanding more vaccines. With the new vaccination policy, private hospitals have to directly procure 25% vaccine quota from manufacturers on advance payment. Vaccines for small private hospitals, procuring less than 6,000 doses, will be distributed by the state.
“Private hospitals get their 25% vaccine quota once a month, while the state gets its vaccine stock from the Centre every week depending on their 75% vaccine usage the previous week. There is no connection between vaccines received for the government and private hospitals,” said Dr Jayakrishnan AV, chairman,
Indian Medical Association
’s (
IMA
) committee for vaccination promotion and coordination.
“Some small and medium private hospitals received their vaccine stock only two days back,” said Dr Joseph Benaven, secretary,
Kerala Private Hospitals Association
.
Preetu Nair, Deputy metro editor at The Times of India, Kochi, wr...
Read MorePreetu Nair, Deputy metro editor at The Times of India, Kochi, writes on crime and health, and issues related to women and children. She is interested in music, travelling and reading law books. In her free time, she likes to go trekking or play badminton.
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