‘Not viable to run jab centres with ₹150 cap on service fee’

Several private hospitals in the Capital have shut drive-through and outreach Covid-19 vaccinations in offices and colonies, arguing that the ₹150 cap on service charge imposed by the Centre does not allow them to adequately recover costs involved in the inoculation process

Several private hospitals in the Capital have shut drive-through and outreach Covid-19 vaccinations in offices and colonies, arguing that the ₹150 cap on service charge imposed by the Centre does not allow them to adequately recover costs involved in the inoculation process.

A nurse preparing a syringe of the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre, in Garlan, western France. (AFP)

One of Delhi’s first drive-through vaccination centres, set up at a mall in Dwarka by Akash Healthcare, which provided free shots to the under-privileged, shut on Friday, after the hospital said it was no longer viable to run.

“...We have decided to stop it now, owing to the new vaccination pricing, as running it has become non-viable now,” the hospital said in a statement.

As he announced free vaccines for Indian states on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that private hospitals will be allowed to charge a maximum service charge of ₹150 on the fixed price of the jabs.

Hospitals have, however, said this fee is too low to cover the cost of maintaining the cold chain, transporting consumables, medical staff, ambulances, and proper bio-medical waste disposal.

Madhukar Rainbow hospital, which had set up outreach vaccination points in various colonies with the help of the local resident welfare organisations, said the centres are all incurring losses.

“There is the cost of the vaccine, and many additional costs if we set up outreach camps. We need to pay for the ambulance, the nurse and doctors, dispose of the biomedical waste properly. There is a cost to all of this. We are planning to send a letter to the government asking them to review the prices for these outreach camps,” said Dinesh Vashishth, COO of the hospital.

Earlier, Fortis Healthcare, in a statement also said the ₹150 cap was too little to run outreach centres.

“Unfortunately, the cap of service charge at ₹150 will not cover the additional costs incurred for such off-site vaccination camps which involve substantial costs like ambulance, transport, extra staff and doctor, plus TDS involved in many cases. We urge the government to consider a higher charge for off-site vaccination camps to enable expanded coverage,” the hospital had said in a statement the day the announcement was made by the prime minister.

Others, such as BLK-Max hospital, which is running one of the biggest vaccination centres, have started operating on the lower costs.

“The ₹150 is enough for hospitals to carry out vaccination at their premises but it is too less if they need to set up drive-throughs and outreach camps. The thing is, it is not clear whether the government will object to extra charges for such camps. The problem was that many hospitals had started charging an overhead cost of ₹300 to ₹400, which is why the government had to step in to regulate the prices. We need to rationalise this cost; we will pick this issue up in the next meeting,” said Girdhar Gyani, director general of Association of Healthcare Providers (India) – an organisation of over 10,000 healthcare providers from across India.