BENGALURU: Private hospitals are irked with the frequent change of policies for the procurement of Covid vaccines. They feel that the government should stick to the earlier policy of procuring the vaccines and giving them to private hospitals, rather than following the 25% quota.
In a major revision of the vaccination policy, the Centre is contemplating lowering the 25% vaccine quota earmarked for private hospitals.
The move comes in the wake of several states, including Tamil Nadu and Odisha, asking the Centre to cut the private sector’s quota to 10%, arguing its participation in the inoculation drive has been poor. Under the existing policy, vaccines are split between government and private hospitals in a 75-25 % ratio. Prior to this in May, the Centre procured 50% of the vaccines and the remaining 50% was equally divided between the state governments and private centres in a 25:25 ratio.
“The Centre must go back to the earlier vaccine policy and supply 100% of the vaccines. Tamil Nadu has used CSR funds to supply vaccines to private hospitals for free, who in turn distribute it to the beneficiaries for no price,” said Dr Ravindra R, managing director at Suguna Hospital and former president of Private Hospital and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA).Some complained that given the current system, the orders made by private hospitals are not even getting processed, neither is the money being returned.
On condition of anonymity, the owner of a city-based private hospital told this correspondent that he paid Rs 18 lakh to Serum Institute of India for Covishield and Rs 30 lakh to Bharat Biotech for Covaxin. “While the latter gave an acknowledgment of the order, the former neither acknowledged nor did it supplied the vaccines. This is a huge amount for smaller private hospitals to spend and is not viable,” he said.
Bharat Biotech expects a minimum order of 2,880 vaccines which costs `30 lakh which is discouraging to smaller private centres. Even with the 25% policy, they have not got anything but people continue to knock on their doors for a jab.
“Now, neither private nor government health centres have stock, thus causing people to run from pillar to post in the hope of getting vaccinated. Moreover, the Cowin app has technical issues which prove to be a hurdle when we try to procure vaccine,” says Karthik Shekhar, coordinator of RMV Hospital.
Some believe that the government’s decision to change the policy every now and then, has left people confused and “vaccine-less”.