PUNE Smaller hospitals in the district, most in city areas, will finally get a private vaccine stock, this after payments were made in advance.
Smaller hospitals have been out of the fray of the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Pune as major hospitals got the vaccine stock in April. Smaller hospitals with less than 50 beds are yet to get their first stock of the vaccine doses.
State officials have confirmed that after days of waiting, smaller hospitals would get stock on Monday.
Serum Institute of India, the largest manufacturer of Covishield, is located within the city, but hospitals have been waiting for 8-10 days.
Dr Sanjay Patil, chairman of the hospital board of India, said, “The smaller hospitals have had to wait for months now since April 1, when the central government first approved and permitted hospitals to vaccinate people. During this time while smaller hospitals waited to get their stock the major hospitals rushed to hoard a large number of vaccines, given that there was a huge demand. This lead to a disparity in vaccine distribution.”
Dr Nivedita Oswal, in charge of a private hospital in Hadapsar, listed as one of the beneficiaries to get the vaccines, said, “Firstly, we could not get the vaccine because the PMC delayed giving us approval. During this time, big hospitals hoarded vaccines. Now when the system was updated and it was declared that even smaller hospitals with less than 50 beds could get the vaccine directly from the manufacturer, we are yet to get the vaccine despite making full payment in advance. I run a small 15-bed hospital and we have a huge demand from people to get vaccinated, especially those who are awaiting their second dose. I made the payment directly to the manufacturer on July 17, however, we are yet to receive the vaccine. The Cowin app says that the vaccine has been dispatched days ago.”
Dr Suryakant Deokar, immunisation officer, PMC, said, “The PMC no longer supplies vaccines to the private hospitals like it did in the initial months, since now they can directly procure it from the manufacturers. PMC is only involved with providing permissions. However, the supply of vaccine comes from the manufacturer and the state distributes it accordingly.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Suryakant Deokar, immunisation officer, PMC, said, “The PMC no longer supplies vaccines to the private hospitals like it did in the initial months, since now they can directly procure it from the manufacturers. PMC is only involved with providing permissions. However, the supply of vaccine comes from the manufacturer and the state distributes it accordingly.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Jayshree Jadhav, district vaccine store officer said, “Right now we have got 22,500 doses to be distributed to smaller hospitals which were stored at the Aundh hospital. Although we had got the stock earlier, it was yet to be updated on the Cowin app. So we diverted that stock for routine immunisation. However, now it has been updated and so by Sunday evening or Monday, all the hospitals on the list will get their stock.”