Reduce private hospitals’ vaccine share to 5% in state: Jharkhand to Centre
Jharkhand’s additional chief secretary (health), Arun Kumar Singh wrote to Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Monday, requesting the Centre to provide 95% vaccines to the state government.
The Jharkhand government has requested the Centre to reduce the share of vaccination in private hospitals from 25% to 5% in the state, owing to a host of factors such as demography, paying capacity and share of private hospitals in the state till date.
Jharkhand’s additional chief secretary (health), Arun Kumar Singh wrote to Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Monday, requesting the Centre to provide 95% vaccines to the state government.
“It is requested to reduce the share of vaccination in private hospitals from 25% to 5% in the state of Jharkhand. Atleast 95% of the vaccines for the state of Jharkhand should be allocated from the government route to enable equitable distribution of vaccines. This would also ensure adherence to the constitutional mandate of equity, equality and reasonable opportunity for all citizens,” Singh’s letter read.
Substantiating the state’s request, the additional chief secretary underlined that 75% of the state’s population lives in rural areas having negligible access to private hospitals. Demand of vaccines in private hospitals even in urban centres is limited owing to lack of purchasing parity, as 37% of the population is below poverty line (BPL).
The health secretary also highlighted that 13 of 24 districts in the state are scheduled tribal districts and 19 districts fall under left wing extremism (LWE) affected districts, where hesitancy about vaccination has been a key challenge.
“A virtual meeting with private hospitals across the state was organised on June 16 to analyse their demand for procurement of vaccines on payment basis and it was found to be very limited. As a matter of fact, only three private hospitals in the state ordered for vaccines in the earlier scheme of vaccination for the age cohort 18-44 years, that too in minimal quantities and had to struggle to utilise the available stock. As you are aware, since the advent of Covid-19 vaccination in private hospitals on Jan 30, 2021, the share of calculation in private hospitals in the state has been less than 2% till April 30,” the secretary argued in his letter.
As per the latest health bulletin, Jharkhand till now has vaccinated 67.73 lakh of its 3.29 crore population. While 57.27 lakh persons have received the first dose, 10.44 lakh persons have been given their second dose as well.
