Allocate 90% of vaccines to govt hospitals, TN CM urges Centre

Chennai: Chief minister M K Stalin on Monday wrote to union health minister Harsh Vardhan to reduce vaccines allocated to private hospitals citing underutilisation and asking for increased supply to government hospitals

Chennai: Chief minister M K Stalin on Monday wrote to union health minister Harsh Vardhan to reduce vaccines allocated to private hospitals citing underutilisation and asking for increased supply to government hospitals. “Revise the inter-se allocation between the government and private institutions to 90:10 as against the current allocation of 75:25,” Stalin said in his letter on Monday.

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Under the new vaccination policy, the Union government is buying 75% of the vaccines produced and the remaining 25% is being provided to private hospitals. “I wish to bring to your notice the fact that this 25% allocation to private hospitals is grossly higher when compared to the actual vaccinations done by them,” Stalin said.

The chief minister supported his argument by highlighting Tamil Nadu’s case where 10.4 million doses have been totally used in the state, out of which private hospitals have used only 6,50,000 doses, which is 4.5%. In June, out of 4.35 million doses administered in the state, private institutions used 4,50,000 doses which is just 10%.

He said that the ‘mismatch between demand and supply in government and private institutions’ has resulted in a situation where private hospitals in Tamil Nadu have around 7,00,000 to 8,00,000 doses available with them, “which is equivalent to one month performance” whereas government institutions are left with just 2,00,000 doses which is lesser than their current single day usage. “This can be rectified only by a more rational and performance based distribution of available doses,” he said.

The CM called for increased allocation to better performing hospitals and suggested that the union government could increase its vaccine procurement price so that vaccine manufacturers aren’t affected over reducing the allocation to the private sector.

The development comes amidst a perpetual vaccine shortage faced by the state and several centres were shut on Monday. “The availability of vaccines has emerged as the principal constraint in the last few weeks,” he said. “This is particularly significant for us since our allotment so far has been one of the lowest among the states in the country in terms of doses per thousand population.” Stalin had earlier written to Vardhan requesting 10 million doses to correct the inadequate allotment in the past but noted that this has not been done. Stalin on Monday also requested the union minister to evaluate the vaccine doses allotted per thousand population to various states and to ensure necessary compensatory allocations are made to states who have been allotted a lower number of doses per capita.

Meanwhile, Kattur village in Tiruvarur district became the first village in Tamil Nadu to achieve 100% vaccination, two days ago, said M Subramanian, health minister while speaking at a special vaccination drive held for advocates and staff of the Madras high court on Monday. All of them in the village have taken at least one dose of the vaccine. “Soon Nilgiris district will also achieve this feat,” he said. He added that Udhaynidhi Stalin’s constituency - Chepauk Thiruvallikeni in Chennai - has reported the highest number of vaccinations of more than 90,000 among the 234 constituencies in the state. “But, it is disheartening to see several facilities closed due to vaccine shortage when the entire Tamil Nadu’s population is ready to get vaccinated, ‘’ Subramanian said.