To be clear I am not aware of the vaccine supply chain mechanism.SaraLax wrote:There is nothing untoward happening here. Private Hospitals in Chennai & other cities who can afford to buy directly from the Vaccine Manufacturers are doing the vaccination for 18+ years age group. Big private Hospitals in TN like Apollo, MGM, Global, SIMS, Kauvery & likewise are purchasing directly from SII & BB at their highest quoted price and one dose of these vaccines costs upwards of INR 1250 at minimum. For a 7 million+ city - these big pvt hospitals are getting only a few thousands of Vaccine doses per week. No wonder it gets quickly taken up.sas wrote:What bothers me the most is, how these pvt hospitals are able to get vaccine supplies, when there is a shortage and why none of the govt primary health care centers are providing the inoculation for 18+.
I am less than 45+ years age but i go for periodic check-up to a very good private but medium sized hospital (well known for their reasonable cost in doing critical surgeries in spine & brain & with a very high success rate). When i went in March 2021 - the head doctor asked me if i was willing to take Covid-19 vaccine during my check-up and i was surprised. I said that i am not in the 45+ age group. The Doctor replied that they are getting vaccines thrice per week (from TN Medical Supplies Corporation? or is it Chennai Corporation ?) and they are advertising in their locality & personally calling up their prior patients in that age group to come and take the Vaccine. But still they are seeing nearly 5 % wastage of the vaccines and hence the reason why he asked me. They got informal permission to provide the vaccine to people in leftover age group and reduce wastage as much as possible. In that period even educated people in Chennai were circumspect about taking these Vaccines. They gave me Covishield & charged INR 250 for the same. Given the opportunity - i opted to take it. But the hospital indicated that people like me will not get the Covid Vaccination Certificate inspite of having paid money to take the vaccination. Then i called them in 2nd week of April and they asked me to come on a different date to get my 2nd dose. I again paid INR 250 and took the 2nd dose. The hospital's Vaccine co-ordinator was lamenting that people are still not coming to take up their 2nd dose!!.
Since this is a pvt hospital which is not treating Covid-19 patients i felt it was more safer to not get infected with Covid-19 during the process of taking the Covid-19 vaccination itself and called up to check on their vaccination appointments (it was not showing in CoWin site). The Vaccine co-ordinator told me that hospital has not got any supply of vaccines for the last 3 weeks from the state body which used to distribute it previously . But they are now getting lots of calls & direct queries at the hospital as to whether they are doing vaccination because they are a private hospital & other private hospitals are also doing vaccination in all age groups. But the hospital is not big enough to buy the vaccines directly from SII or BB and suffer wastage. They are willing to vaccinate people if state govt provides them the vaccines. So they are asking people to call back in 2 weeks to get an update. There was a change in state government in the middle and things got into a state of stasis on the Covid-19 front. In last week of April or so, the Health Minister from then ADMK run govt was seeking the Election Commission's permission to allow the State Govt to make some critical decisions on the COVID-19 handling front alone but it seems they did not get a proper response. Now the current SG in TN has just started the process of tendering to acquire Vaccines for the 18-45 years group. There is Oxygen shortage too and the whole state is in a very strict lock down (basically damaging the lower middle class and poor people the most after having earlier indicated that they will not enforce strict lockdowns). This lack of vaccines from state govt in TN for this 18 - 45 yrs group will continue until local vaccine manufacturers like SII, BB & Sputnik increase their production rate. Only 45+ years folks are still being provided vaccines in numerous pvt hospitals and state's hospitals & UHPCs. Till then folks in TN have to be patient, keep themselves safe from COVID-19 infection and wait their time out.
Nowhere I have quoted that pvt hospitals inoculation drive is outward.
Still all the slots for 18+ in pvt hospitals are booked just like that within a few seconds of slot opening.
Vaccine slot openings in various pvt hospitals are posted randomly on cowin website, irrespective of whenever they open the slots, they are booked within a few seconds.
There are also people with comorbidities in this age group, moreover this particular age group has the highest % of people in India's working class. Majority of the sole breadwinners are from this age group.
It's high time more UPHC's and military hospitals are roped in to start inoculating 18+, not every one will get the elite slots.
