News Analysis India

Tag: vaccination centres

  • Soon, you may avail Covid vaccine at your doctor’s clinic next door

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Centre is planning to allow single doctor clinics across India to offer Covid vaccines in yet another tweak in its vaccination policy for coronavirus, The New Indian Express has learnt. 

    As per the Centre’s existing Covid vaccination strategy, 25% of the total vaccines available in the country are to be procured by private hospitals and offered to recipients at a price — Rs 150 administrative cost plus the actual price of the vaccine per dose — while in government hospitals, jabs are to be administered free of cost. 

    However, in terms of actual vaccinations carried out so far, the role of private hospitals has remained quite limited and only private hospitals in some cities have been able to participate in a big way. 

    In the most populous states such as UP and Bihar, where there are a few corporate hospitals, inoculations have largely been conducted in government facilities, data by the Centre show. 

    As of Saturday, there were only 2,417 private hospitals carrying out Covid vaccinations accounting for less than 5% of 54,977 vaccination centres across India. 

    “The proposal of permitting single doctor clinics to carry out Covid vaccinations has been given in-principal approval after many states suggested this and bodies of private hospitals also recommended that this move will raise their participation,” said a senior official in the Union Health Ministry. 

    ALSO READ | Over 1.45 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses available with states: Centre

    “This will allow people to access vaccines at their trusted doctors next door and help remove the vaccine hesitancy which is emerging as an issue in many towns,” the official added. “However, there is a concern related to the monitoring of adverse events following immunisation and detailed guidelines for it are being worked out.” 

    Another source in the ministry said that in some states, state aggregators have already started asking doctors practising independently to raise the demands which will then be conveyed to vaccine makers via the Centre. 

    Representatives of private hospitals, meanwhile, welcomed the proposal. “It is a much-needed step as vaccination has now reached almost a saturation level in big cities while a large population in smaller towns are yet to get the shots,” said Girdhar J Gyani, director general of the Association of Healthcare Providers of India, a body of private hospitals. 

    Gyani added that if the vaccination service is offered by the regular doctors people see in their neighbourhood, it will help overcome the vaccine hesitancy to a great extent. 

    The government has been emphasising that it wants more private hospitals, especially those in far-flung and remote areas and smaller ones, to come forward to take part in the vaccination drive. 

    It has said that this scale-up is required to remove the regional inequity in access to vaccination.

  • Private hospitals empanelled under health schemes as Covid vaccination centres

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The upcoming expansion of the Covid-19 vaccination programme targeted at people above 60 and those over 45 with specified comorbidities will involve a network of private hospitals empanelled under the Central Government Health Schemes and Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana.

    Hospitals empanelled for state-run health insurance schemes will also be the vaccination centres in this phase of the vaccination drive, set to begin from March 1, the states were told on Friday by the Centre.

    In a meeting with Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and R S Sharma, chairman of the empowered group on vaccine administration, states were also informed that as Co-WIN, the platform driving the vaccination, is being upgraded, current beneficiaries will also have a choice of vaccination centres.

    As of now, healthcare workers and frontline workers are allocated vaccination centres and do not get an option to choose the centre of their choice.

    The Centre also said that government facilities such as primary and community health centres, Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres sub-division hospitals, district hospitals and medical college hospitals will double up as vaccination centres.

    ALSO READ | Is there enough data on people with comorbidities before COVID-19 vaccination, ask experts

    States have also been asked to ensure that the private health facilities mandatorily must have basic cold chain equipment, their own team of vaccinators and staff and adequate facility for management of any adverse event following immunisation cases for being used as vaccination centres.

    All beneficiaries, regardless of the mode of access, must have also been asked to carry specified documents for identity verification and those with comorbidities will need a certificate from a registered medical practitioner.

    Also, the process of registration will include three routes which include advance self-registration, on-site registration and facilitated cohort registration.

    “Vaccination will be free of charge at the Government Vaccination Centres,” said the health ministry adding that those taking the Covid vaccine at any designated empanelled private health facility will have to pay a pre-fixed charge, which is yet to be made public.

    In the meeting on Friday, states were also asked to keep a vaccination scale-up plan ready which will include the granular weekly and fortnightly plans for scaling up the vaccination sites both within the government and private facilities and also the number of vaccine doses administered.