Lens on lax checks after doc’s kin get vaccine jabs

At present, only health workers and front line services staff such as police, sanitation workers and military personnel are eligible for doses.

Three family members of a doctor employed at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram hospital were given coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday, highlighting potential gaps in the Co-WIN vaccination planning system that can be used by people to jump the queue.

The three people who received doses on Wednesday were the daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter of a doctor working at the hospital. (Reuters)

To be sure, the hospital said they were given the doses since they were registered as front line workers. But several other hospitals and doctors’ associations that HT spoke to pointed that protocols and checks needed to be tightened until vaccination was made available to the wider public.

At present, only health workers and front line services staff such as police, sanitation workers and military personnel are eligible for doses.

“The consultant of paediatrics at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital conducts OPDs at her residence-cum-clinic. (The three persons) were registered as front-line workers aiding in medical care in the health-care institution,” said a statement from the director (medical) of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

Experts, however, highlighted the lack of adequate checks in the Co-WIN application, which hospitals use to upload lists of eligible recipients, plan their vaccination sessions, and track who got doses.

“There are lacunae in the registration process which can be misused by people, if they so choose,” said Dr GS Grewal, president-elect of the Delhi Medical Association, which facilitated the registration of health-care workers from the small private sector institutes.

At the heart of the problem is the lack of verification to determine if a recipient truly falls in any of the eligible priority groups. According to an official aware of the Co-WIN recipient registration process, a link is generated by the government for hospitals, nursing homes, and standalone clinics to register their staff. The institutions are asked to fill in details along with details of one of their government-issued identity cards. As for record of employment, the institutions have to fill in employee IDs.

“There is no process of verification of details. Once the data is uploaded, a person can go to any of the centres and get the shot. The data is directly uploaded by hospitals or clinics to the portal and there is no mechanism for district officials to verify the data,” said a senior official from Central district, where the incident took place.

A city doctor who runs his own clinic said on condition of anonymity: “Only those working in the clinics – doctor, nursing staff, multi-purpose worker, pharmacist, or sanitation staff – should ideally be registered for the vaccination drive. But, if a clinic so chooses, they can send in the names of their family members and others and there is no way to verify that”.

Dr BB Wadhwa, the current president of the Delhi Medical Association, said, “Ideally, family members are not covered in the definition of health-care workers. However, if they are working in the clinic or at a significant risk of exposure, they could be added in the list of beneficiaries. Our aim is to protect people from the infection.”