Govt advises states to give jabs to pvt hospitals

NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked the states and Union territories to aggregate Covid-19 vaccine distribution for private hospitals on monthly basis and either facilitate procurement of doses themselves or allow the Centre to do so for an equitable distribution of vaccines as barely 4% of the vaccination centres in the country are in the private sector.

To be sure, the Centre, states and Union territories can only facilitate procurement and does not mean they will buy directly for private hospitals. This is to ensure doses for private hospitals as per their requirement.

“There are two options available with the states and Union territories; the first one is to aggregate the demand for one mongoth of hospital wise quantities and facilitate procurement from companies, or the second option suggested is to aggregate the demand for one month of hospital quantities and let the government of India facilitate procurement,” said an official aware of the matter on condition of anonymity.

There is a disparity in the private sector with Covid-19 vaccines largely limited to big private players that tend to buy a major volume from the available 25% quota allotted to the private sector. This leaves smaller hospitals with inadequate doses to run full-fledged Covid vaccination centres.

As per the CO-WIN dashboard, of the total 36,116 sites conducting Covid vaccination, 1,587 are in the private sector.

India began implementing the liberalised pricing and accelerated national Covid-19 vaccination strategy from May 1, wherein 50% of the available doses were earmarked for supply to states and Union territories as free of cost supply from the Centre.

The remaining 50% was made available for direct procurement from the vaccine manufacturers by states and private hospitals.

On June 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced modifications in the vaccine policy, under which 75% of the total central drugs’ laboratory cleared doses will be procured by the Centre.

As per the revised guidelines, 25% of the vaccine stock was left to be procured by the private hospitals.

On June 10, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a meeting with the states and Union territories.

The progress of vaccination was reviewed at the meeting in light of the revised guidelines for implementation of the national Covid-19 vaccination programme and recent advisories.

Less than adequate private sector participation in the Covid-19 vaccination drive was highlighted at the meeting.

The new advisory is based on disparity seen between bigger cities and private hospitals.