5 lakh doses lying unused with private hospitals in Pune, small set-ups suffer – ET HealthWorld

A state health officials’ meeting on Thursday revealed that about 5 lakh vaccine doses are currently lying with private hospitals in the district. As per CoWin, 76,932 beneficiaries were vaccinated across the district on Thursday.

“The rationale is simple. As per the vaccine allocation policy, the state government gives 25% stock from its share to private hospitals for vaccination at a fixed cost per dose and uses the remaining 75% at state/municipal corporation-run vaccination centres for free of cost. Until this 25% allocation gets utilised, private hospitals will not get the new allocation,” said Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director, health services, Pune circle.

The small set-ups vying to begin vaccination centres on their premises are bearing the brunt of the stock lying unused. This is happening mainly with the big and corporate hospitals.

“About 5 lakh doses are lying unused with various private hospitals in Pune. They need to utilise the stock, so that other small set-ups can purchase the stock through CoWin. The state government cannot exceed the 25% allocation earmarked for the private players,” Deshmukh said.

Sanjay Patil, chairman of the Indian Medical Association’s Hospital Board of India, an association of small hospitals said, “Many small hospitals are disappointed as they are not getting vaccine doses through CoWin. Many are opting out of the drive due to exasperation.”

Small hospitals and nursing homes have a key role to play in expediting vaccination. “Decentralised vaccination is the key to cover the maximum population. Approaching a neighbourhood nursing home is more convenient than trudging long distances to get the shot at big hospitals,” Patil said.

Bharati hospital’s deputy medical director, Jitendra Oswal, said, “People opt for free-of-cost vaccines, rather than paying money for the shots at the private hospital. That is the reason why a large stock is lying unused with the private hospitals. We hardly vaccinate about 400 people now and are left with 35,000 doses.”

The district on Wednesday (July 13) received nearly 1.08 lakh doses of Covishield, which health officials said would help in providing a major boost to vaccine coverage in the region. “Pune district is likely to get another 25,000 doses on Friday,” Deshmukh said.