THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The role of private hospitals in Covid vaccination drive came to the fore on Tuesday when the health department said its supplies would be disrupted. As many as 1,17,796 doses were administered through 528 government and 198 private vaccination centres.
Though it was less than the average number of doses given last week, the vaccination did not come to a complete halt due to the increased supply in private hospitals. Health Minister Veena George had said that there would be no vaccine for distribution through the public system in districts such as Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kozhikode.
However, these districts distributed vaccines in the range of 5,000 to 8,000 doses. Ernakulam which had only Covaxin doses in government centres topped with 20,115 doses.“Private hospitals that had applied for vaccines have received at least one consignment each of 500, 1,000 and 3,000 doses. So, the supply has become evenly distributed and it helped in preventing crowding. Even clinics have started ordering vaccines after supply constraints were removed,” said Kerala Private Hospital Association (KPHA) treasurer Dr E K Ramachandran.
Earlier, only large hospitals making bulk orders of above 3,000 doses were considered for supply by manufacturers. It led to big corporate hospitals to start unhealthy promotion at the cost of small hospitals. Dr Ramachandran said big hospitals used to charge more than the government stipulated rate.
This was successfully challenged by KPHA in court and it led to a new supply policy. As per the new policy, a private hospital can order as low as 500 doses of Covishield and 160 doses of Covaxin. But it will be distributed through the government channel. If it is at least 6,000 Covishield and 2,880 Covaxin doses, the manufacturers will send them directly to hospitals. As many as 289 hospitals had placed orders for 2,01,320 doses through the state channel and 13,95,500 doses for direct supply till July 19. Private hospitals have started receiving vaccines based on the orders for the last three days.
The vaccine policy mandates that the Central government purchase 75% of the vaccines produced for distribution to the states for free while the private hospitals can purchase the rest directly from the manufacturers.
However there were allegations that the 25% meant for private hospitals were cornered by large hospital chains.Some health experts wanted the state to form a consortium of small and medium private hospitals to purchase vaccines in large numbers to ensure supply and faster inoculation. Though the government made initial discussions in this regard, it was dropped due to technical issues.
“The consortium should give bulk orders for 75 lakh doses. Bulk orders are always easy to ship faster. The government should also provide subsidies so that vaccines are made available to people at `300-400. The pace of vaccination will not improve without any innovative strategy,” said immunologist and public health expert Dr Padmanabha Shenoy.
Indian Medical Association state secretary Dr Gopikumar P said the government should consider the vaccination on a war footing to achieve the desired level of herd immunity against the next wave of Covid.