Pointing out that the current vaccine allocation ratio between government hospitals and private hospitals undermines the goal of vaccinating people at the maximum possible speed, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday urged Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to adopt a more rational distribution of available doses among government and private hospitals.
“I request you to revise the allocation between the government and private institutions to 90:10 as against the current allocation of 75:25,” the Chief Minister said in his letter to the Union Health Minister. He also renewed his request to the Union government to allocate one crore doses of vaccine to make good the inadequate allotment of vaccines to Tamil Nadu in the past.
The Chief Minister also requested the Union Health Minister to evaluate the vaccine doses allotted to various states so far, in terms of doses allotted per thousand population and ensure that necessary compensatory allocations are made to states who have been allotted lower number of doses per capita.
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In Tamil Nadu, 1.43 crore doses have been used, out of which private hospitals have used only 6.5 lakh doses, which translates to just 4.5 percent. Even in the current month, out of 43.5 lakh doses administered in the state, private institutions have contributed only 4.5 lakh doses which is just 10 percent.
“The above mismatch between demand and supply in government and private institutions has resulted in a situation where private hospitals in Tamil Nadu have around 7-8 lakh doses available with them, which is equivalent to one month's performance whereas government institutions are left with just two lakh doses which is less than their current single day usage. This can be rectified only
by a more rational and performance based distribution of available doses,” he added.
The allotment of 25 percent of vaccines to private hospitals might have been done to incentivise manufacturers, by allowing them to sell a portion at comparatively better price. “While this is acceptable, the need for a better blended pricing for vaccine manufacturers should not be allowed to undermine our immediate goal of vaccinating our people at the maximum possible speed. This can be achieved by increasing allocation of vaccines to performing government hospitals,” he pointed out.
The Chief Minister further said that to ensure vaccine manufacturers are not affected by the reduction in share to private hospitals, the Union government’s procurement price could be increased, so that the blended price under the new policy remains the same as the current one.
"The availability of vaccines has emerged as the principal constraint in the last few weeks, after the above pick-up in vaccination. This is particularly significant for us since our allotment so far has been one of the lowest among the states in the country in terms of doses per thousand population," the Chief Minister pointed out.
Stating that his earlier request for an allocation of one crore doses to correct the inadequate allotment in the past has not been accepted, Stalin said, “The incremental increase in allocation for June-July is just in line with the increases made available to other states, who had got higher allotment in the past and therefore have already vaccinated more people. Hence, I reiterate that earlier request.”