No free vaccines for private clinics
No free supply for private clinics, pharmacies
FOLLOWING a radical change in policy by the Eastern Cape Department of Health, free government-issued vaccines will no longer be available at private clinics and pharmacies.
This means that new parents will now have to pay more than R1 000 for private stock if they want to avoid queues and delays often associated with state facilities.
The state supply of vaccines to private clinics dried up about a year ago in what was then described as an administrative bungle.
But this week Eastern Cape Department of Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said they had changed their minds and would no longer be supplying free government vaccines to private clinics.
“Our main concern is we did not want the charges levied by these private clinics to be associated with government charging for a service that is supposed to be free to all South Africans,” he said.
“The provision of vaccines through private clinics is a choice that must be funded privately and not publicly.
“The province is achieving its target of over 85% immunisation coverage through its network of public health clinics.
“We can and will provide coverage to all eligible children. There are public facilities accessible in all areas to facilitate availability of vaccines to everybody.”
Previously, private clinics and pharmacies would receive government stock and then supply these for free to patients, but with a service fee.
Helen Ward, who runs the city’s busiest baby clinic at Life St George’s, said what was happening was “truly horrendous”.
She said there were no government-stock vaccines available in any private clinic.
“The Department of Health still provides vaccines to private clinics in other provinces . . . so why can’t it be done here?” she asked.
She said her clients had filed pages of complaints about the decision to stop the supply of government vaccines.
Most of the mothers’ complaints in the book stated that private stock was too expensive.
Others said state clinics were not always clean.