Housing societies, private establishments rush to private hospitals for Covid vaccination

While Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has expressed its inability to start door-to-door vaccination in absence of guidelines from the state government, several housing societies and private establishments in the city are approaching private hospitals in the city to set up vaccination camps in their premises

While Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has expressed its inability to start door-to-door vaccination in absence of guidelines from the state government, several housing societies and private establishments in the city are approaching private hospitals in the city to set up vaccination camps in their premises.

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Private hospitals like Fortis, HN Reliance, Nanavati and Apollo Hospitals are receiving a significant number of queries for setting up vaccination camps for residents of housing societies or employees of private establishments.

The BMC had on May 10 issued a circular allowing vaccination sessions for housing societies and private establishments for those above 18 years of age. The vaccination would be on a payment basis and the payment per vaccine would need to be mutually decided by the private centre (hospital) and private establishments/housing societies, as per the BMC guidelines.

Post this, several housing societies and private establishments have started approaching private hospitals for vaccination but it has not yet taken off due to shortage of vaccines.

A spokesperson for Fortis Hospital said, “We have received several requests from housing societies and workplaces to begin Covid-19 vaccination drive for its residents and employees. Following the local municipal guidelines, we are working on the logistics that will be needed to initiate these camps. We hope to start with this engagement very soon.”

Under the guidelines, private hospitals will organisation vaccination session at the premises of the housing society or private establishment. Beneficiaries are needed to be registered with the Co-Win app. The vaccination team would be needed to have a doctor, vaccinator, vaccination officer to verify Co-Win details and one person to manage the crowd. An ambulance is mandatory to be stationed at the place of vaccination drive be it housing society or private offices. It is expected to be used to rush vaccine beneficiary to the hospital in case of adverse effects post-inoculation.

Dr Santosh Shetty, executive director, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital said, “We are in touch with corporate house and housing societies for the administration of Covid vaccines, and we will start it once we get a fresh stock by month-end. Currently, we have got few request letters and are in touch with 10-12 big housing societies nearby our hospital and the same number of corporate houses.”

Borivli resident Ankit Arora said, “We contacted several private hospitals but they expressed their inability to start such a drive. Unless we have sufficient stock, I don’t think it is of any use to have such facilities.”

Meanwhile, from Friday, vaccination for all age groups will be conducted on an appointment basis. The BMC has decided that vaccination will be done on a walk-in basis for three days for those above 60 years of age between Monday to Wednesday and appointment basis between Thursday to Saturday, while the vaccination drive will remain shut on Sunday.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC said, “Currently, for next week we will continue walk-in vaccination for those above 60 years of age, but in the week after that, we might change our policy depending on the vaccine doses that we will get from the global tender that we have floated.”