Ovid-19 vaccination: Allotment olicy tweaks worry pvt facilities
Bihar may fail to absorb share of Covid-19 vaccie routed through the prialth care channel, as the hospitals are wary of g afresh for vaccines ailed attempt in June. al of the Centre repeatanging its vaccine allotolicy, most private playe adopted a wait and olicy, which could affect vaccination drive. are waiting for clarity e government before we fresh. We cannot apply he government advises d Dr LB Singh, medical tendent of the Mahavir Sansthan (MCS), run by havir temple trust in vaccination at the child hospital.
Dr Sidharth of the KP Sinha Memorial Hospital was also unsure of placing fresh orders after getting a refund.
Urologist Dr Satyajit Kumar Singh, managing director of the Nabh-accredited Ruban Memorial Hospital, was critical of the government frequently changing its policy, but had reapplied for the vaccines, as he said there was demand at his hospital.
“The government initially supplied us the vaccines free of cost between January and April. In May, it asked us to purchase the vaccines through them. Now, they want us to buy them directly through the manufacturers. The frequent change in policy is delaying the whole exercise and causing an impediment in the vaccination drive,” said Dr Singh.
A couple of days back, the Ruban hospital paid ₹30 lakh to the manufacturers, but is yet to hear from them about the supply of vaccines.
As per the government’s revised policy, private facilities now have to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers by paying them in advance. Till June, the government wanted them to route it through its NHA portal, after having supplied the vaccines free between January and April.
Ten private centres, which applied through the NHA, did not get any vaccine in July.
That left Bihar short of its scheduled allocation of vaccines, as it received 86,86,400 doses against an allotment of 91,81,930 for July. Most of these centres have not applies for vaccines again.
The 86,86,400 doses of vaccines the state received last month was against 68,86,450 doses allocated by the Centre for being administered through government facilities.
“We hardly received any vaccine against the 22,95,480 doses allocated through private channel, as per the vaccine supply schedule communicated to us early last month,” said an officer overseeing the vaccination programme in the state.
“Private facilities are wary of applying for vaccines and blocking their money as they are unsure of the demand, especially when the government is administering the vaccines free of cost at its centres, while private players are charging beneficiaries for the service,” said another government officer, requesting anonymity.
The government has capped the maximum per dose price at Rs 780 for Covishield, Rs 1,410 for Covaxin and Rs 1,145 for Suptnik V at private centres.
The BIG Apollo Spectra, PARAS-HMRI and Jai Prabha Medanta are the only three among 76 private facilities empanelled with the state government for Covid-19 vaccination that are presently engaged in the vaccination programme. They are, however, getting the vaccines through their corporate offices outside the state.
Bihar has set a target to inoculate its 7.22 crore target population by December 31 but had administered only 2.48 crore doses so far.