Repetition of beneficiaries a problem, say Gurugram officials

To estimate the actual vaccination coverage in the district, the health department has sought to revise the beneficiary list, citing duplicity in data

To estimate the actual vaccination coverage in the district, the health department has sought to revise the beneficiary list, citing duplicity in data. The decision, however, has to be taken by the Central government, said a senior state health department official.

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“The duplicity issue has been raised with the Union ministry of health and family welfare. Based on their directive, a decision on revising beneficiary list will be taken,” said Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary, health department.

“Until a decision is taken, the target is to continue covering the healthcare workers and utilise the existing vaccine supply. Throughout the state, the vaccine coverage has been more than 58%, which has to be increased further,” he said.

The district health department, after holding multiple vaccination sessions in almost 21 private hospitals, found names repeating in more than one site.

At the vaccination site, the list available with the vaccination officer contains the name of the registered beneficiary along with the identity card number, date of birth and phone number. “Ideally, the Co-WIN platform should not have duplicity issue when unique specific details are linked with every beneficiary,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

“It has come to our notice that in some cases, a single doctor has been registered with a couple of health facilities, which unnecessarily increases the count of vaccine beneficiaries,” he said.

Yadav said, “Many health staff in private facilities have switched jobs or moved out of the city. Likewise, students in the final year of medical courses could have graduated and moved back to their home towns. These missing healthcare workers have to excluded to estimate the actual vaccination coverage.”

Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer, said, “We will ask hospitals and medical college to share the list of employees and students who have left. A cumulative list of such beneficiaries can be prepared until further directives from the state health department are received.”