CHENNAI: More than eight lakh doses of anti-Covid vaccines allotted to private hospitals in Tamil Nadu in May and June (till June 23) lie unused in cold storage.
This means more than half of the 13.9 lakh doses supplied to them weren’t used.
With this being the status, the Centre has announced that the private hospitals, which account only for 7.8% of the vaccinations in the state, will be allotted 25% of the state’s share of vaccines in July.
Public health experts say setting aside 25% of the doses to the private sector will hamper the state’s plan to “hyper vaccinate” maximum number of people ahead of the anticipated third wave.
For July, the Union health ministry has allotted Tamil Nadu 71.5 lakh doses of the vaccine.
Of this,17.75 lakh doses have been earmarked for private hospitals.
“Why should the Centre push the vaccine into the private sector when there is demand in the government vaccination centre,” asked public health expert T Sundararaman, who is a former executive director of National Health Systems Resource Centre.
According to information from the directorate of public health, of the 4.9 lakh doses of the vaccines allotted to private Covid vaccination centres in May, the hospitals had administered only 1.36 lakh doses.
In June, private hospitals took a little more than 9 lakh doses and used around 4.8 lakh doses.
So, of the 13.91 lakh doses they were allotted from May 1 to June 23, only 5.9 lakh doses were used.
“The Centre said vaccine allocations were made to the state based on the average number of doses utilized.
The same rule should be followed for allocation to private hospitals too,” Sundararaman said.
There are many reasons why several people preferred vaccinations at government centres.
First, vaccinations in government hospitals were free, whereas a person had to pay between Rs 850 to Rs 1,500 depending on the centre or the vaccine.
“Also, people could walk in to government hospitals or primary health care centres without any appointment or registration on the CoWin portal and get the jab.
Many people who stepped into government facilities for the first time were surprised by the courtesy and service.
These people spread the word and more people came in,” said former director of public health Dr K Kolandaisamy.
Several civic and local agencies organised free vaccination camps in schools, community health centres and auditoriums to boost coverage.
Private hospitals say they did not have these advantages.
“We can vaccinate only people who come to our facility.
And when lockdown was in force, most people preferred walking down to a PHC nearby than travelling to a private hospital,” said a senior doctor in-charge of immunisation at a city-based hospital.
State immunisation officials hope that they will be able to encourage more private hospitals to offer the vaccine.
“If we have more private hospitals participating in urban and rural areas, we may be able to boost coverage.
We are trying to encourage them,” said joint director of immunisation Dr K Vinay Kumar.
Nevertheless, the state does not have information on whether the vaccines that are not claimed or used by the private hospitals from the 25% quota can be utilised by the state in July.