E-Paper
Pune adds 14 more private hospitals as Covid vaccination centres
PUNE In a bid to increase the number of beneficiaries getting vaccinated the central ministry of health and family welfare has approved 14 non-empanelled private hospitals, each with a capacity of 200-100 beds, which will serve as Covid vaccination centres in Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad
PUNE In a bid to increase the number of beneficiaries getting vaccinated the central ministry of health and family welfare has approved 14 non-empanelled private hospitals, each with a capacity of 200-100 beds, which will serve as Covid vaccination centres in Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The additional hospitals will increase the vaccination by at least 4,000 beneficiaries daily, said officials.
These hospitals are not empanelled with the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) or state health insurance. The Centre has approved 67 such hospitals in the state out of which 12 are for Pune city and two from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) area.
All the approved hospitals, government and private are approved after assessment of space for vaccination, cold chain space for vaccine storage, vaccination team/human resource and emergency service after reported adverse effect following immunization.
Currently, Pune has 135 session sites that can administer more than 16,100 vaccine doses.
Rajesh Deshmukh, district collector, said, “We are trying to increase the vaccination centres in Pune district given the high number of Covid cases. We aim to vaccinate about one lakh people daily. We are also seeking permission to vaccinate the population above 18 years.”
While the earlier notification of the government stated that only those private hospitals empanelled with central or state government health schemes and with more than 200 beds would be eligible for vaccination. However, given the high response from citizens, the government has further relaxed its guidelines and allowed more private hospitals to come on board.
The hospitals have to purchase the vaccine for ₹150 per dose and can charge ₹100 per dose, so the beneficiary would have to pay ₹250 per dose at private hospitals.
Currently, Pune city has 83 vaccination centres out of which 42 are private hospitals, while PCMC has 21 centres out of which eight are government hospitals.
At least 35,687 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the Pune district on Saturday (March 13) which was the highest in the state which took the cumulative number to 3.08 lakh.
Out of the total vaccinated, 90,000 health care workers have got the first dose while 29,000 have got their second dose and have completed their course. While 55,000 frontline workers have got their first dose and 2,657 have completed their vaccination course.
Out of the 90,000 vaccination doses, 1.29 lakh senior citizens and those aged between 45-59 with comorbidities have got their first dose.
