Achieving vaccination target: ASHA workers to get Rs 10 per beneficiary

Karam Prakash

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Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 7

To ramp up the Covid-19 vaccination drive, the Health Department has already given daily and weekly targets of vaccine shots to each district. Henceforth, the health authorities in Patiala will have to inoculate 16,714 beneficiaries in a day and 1.17 lakh in a week.

To achieve target the Health Department has already decided to give Rs10 to each ASHA worker for bringing one beneficiary for the vaccination.

The aim of giving monetary benefit, health officials said, was to motivate ASHA workers so that they could convince beneficiaries for getting jabbed against Covid-19.

It has been learnt that even smallest health centre has to inoculate at least 1,000 beneficiaries. However, experts said the said targets were not achievable because health workers were already burdened with collecting Covid testing samples.

A medical officer, pleading anonymity, said, “In a day, we have to complete sampling and vaccination and visit OPDs. We are already overburdened with other work. These targets, set by the higher-ups, are unrealistic because they (people at the helm) are ignorant of ground realities.”

Notably, Patiala district has been given an average daily target of 16,714. However, the Health Department could so far achieve the highest vaccination of 5,000 beneficiaries in a single day, which is almost one third of the given target.

A medical officer, associated with the vaccination drive, said, “We are going to hold vaccination camps in wards, colonies and societies. We know it is risky and can lead to chaos because post vaccination observation will also be affected.”

Meanwhile, health workers are of the view that other departments should also be involved in the vaccination drive.

Meanwhile, the Patiala Civil Surgeon, Dr Satinder Singh, said, “An incentive-based approach has been adopted to achieve the target. Otherwise, it will become difficult to achieve it because the task of sampling and managing Covid positive patients is already in hand.”