Vaccine not anytime soon at Shimla’s private hospitals

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 16

It’s going to be a while before private hospitals in Shimla start administering Covid vaccine to general public. Chief Medical Officer, Shimla, has approved two private hospitals for vaccination in the city — Tenzin and Siddhi Vinayak Hospital — but both the hospitals have no clue when they would get the vaccine.

“We have placed an order for 5,000 Covishield doses with the Serum Institute of India and a smaller order with the manufacturer of Sputnik. Unfortunately, we have been told to wait, without any confirmation about the time when we would get the vaccine,” said Dr ML Kaushal, MS, Tenzin Hospital.

Siddhi Vinayak Hospital, too, took the similar line. “We have been told by the manufacturers that there’s no availability of the vaccine at the moment. The manufacturers are first trying to meet the government demand. So, we don’t know when we will have the vaccine and when will we start administering it,” said a Sidhi Vinayak Hospital spokesperson.

Have to procure vaccine themselves

The private hospitals will have to procure the vaccines themselves. The NHM will facilitate the process in case they are facing any problems. Except for that, it’s entirely private hospitals own initiative. —Nipun Jindal , NHM Director

The recently changed guidelines also seem to have left these hospitals a little confused regarding the procurement process. Clearing the air, National Health Mission Director Nipun Jindal said, “The private hospitals will have to procure the vaccines themselves. The NHM will try and facilitate the process in case they are facing any problems. Except for that, it’s entirely private hospitals own initiative,” said Dr Jindal.

Even as these hospitals wait for the arrival of vaccine without knowing when it would be available, they have started rendering their services to the companies/corporates that have managed to procure the vaccine.

“We will administer the vaccine to the staff of Reliance-Jio and the Adani group. In fact, we have started vaccinating the Jio employees from Tuesday itself. The Adani group is expected to procure the vaccine in a few days. Once they do, we will send our staff to vaccinate them in their stores,” said Dr Kaushal.

Incidentally, only two private hospitals in the state have been able to procure vaccine — Fortis in Kangra and Jindal Sanjeevani Hospital in Kinnaur. “They had placed their order before us, and had therefore received the supplies,” said Dr Kaushal.

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