NEW DELHI: Private hospitals in most parts of the country, barring metropolitan cities, seem to be struggling to carry out Covid vaccination due to low supply by the vaccine manufacturers and coordination issues at the state level under the new inoculation regime.
Days after criticism by the Centre on slow vaccination, their representatives have retorted in a letter to the government, which The New Indian Express has accessed, saying that the majority of the available vaccine this month has gone to the central quota.
The Association of Private Healthcare Providers of India, in a letter to the Union Health Ministry, has said that since vaccine manufacturing ramp-up is yet to materialise fully, most of the stock is picked up by the central government for distribution.
Not much is available for the private sector and only after July 15, there has been progress on procurement of vaccines by private hospitals. “It is therefore not correct to say that the private sector was not showing interest in vaccination,” said the letter.
Of about 41 crore Covid vaccine doses administered in India—it is not clear how many were given out in private hospitals but sources said it could be in the range of 7-8 crore -- the majority of which may be concentrated only in a handful of cities.
From June 21, the Centre has taken over the responsibility of procuring 75% of the total available Covid vaccine in India while the rest is up for procurement by private hospitals.
Last week, in a review meeting of the vaccination at private centres, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan had termed the slow pace of vaccination through such hospitals as a “cause of serious worry”
In the letter, the AHPI, however, pointed out that many hospitals were not able to get the vaccine for a variety of reasons, which could be the absence of coordination at the state government level and the inability on part of manufacturers to supply the vaccine.
It also cited a recent survey carried out during the first two weeks of July among 70 private hospitals to gauge the status of the supply of vaccines to private hospitals.
About 77% of the hospitals said that they were not getting the vaccine on time and 41% of hospitals said that there were no nodal officers appointed by state governments in their localities.
“It shows that the new system which was to come in effect from 21st June, has still not been in full functionality and therefore it will not be correct to say that private hospitals were not showing interest in vaccination,” the association has said.