The government on Tuesday said in Parliament that it has told vaccine manufacturers that they don’t need to keep aside 25% of the vaccines they produce for the private hospitals and can only provide to them the amount they want to buy, giving the rest to the government.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in an oral answer on Tuesday in Parliament, said it is not necessary now for vaccine manufacturers to keep 25% of vaccines for the private sector and only give that much as they need. He said the rest can be supplied to the government. He said only 7-9% of the vaccine quota was being used by private hospitals.
“We have seen in one month that in the private sector, 25% vaccines are not being utilised. Only 7-9% of the vaccines are being used in the private sector. So we have decided that vaccines not being utilized in the private hospitals be given in the government quota. The government has told all the companies…that it is not necessary to give 25% vaccines in the private quota. Give private hospitals as much as they buy, rest the government will take their supplies,” Mandaviya told Parliament in an oral answer on Tuesday.
This was in answer to a question by Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi, who asked if the government was planning to reduce the 25% vaccine quota for private hospitals as they were not able to utilise it and if the left-over quota can be given instead to state governments.
As on date, about 2.3 crore vaccine doses are lying unutilised, and a significant portion of the same is with private hospitals. With states doing free vaccination, takers for the vaccine at private vaccination centres are down since the same is offered at a price of Rs 780 and Rs 1,410 for a shot of Covishield and Covaxin respectively. The private hospitals are getting a service charge of only Rs 150 per dose under the revised guidelines since June 21, proving to be another dampener for them.
The private sector is hence not being able to pick 25% of the vaccine stock produced in the country, which they have to purchase at a much higher cost than the Rs 205 and Rs 215 being paid by the Centre to buy a dose of Covishield and Covaxin respectively. Multiple chief ministers have told the Centre that the government’s quota of 75% should be increased as states have a higher capacity to vaccinate people but are getting limited doses while private hospitals are not picking up their 25% quota, leading to the overall vaccination drive not picking pace.
News18 had last week also reported that private vaccine manufacturers were complaining that they had stockpiles of vaccines since they were not being picked up by the private sector as part of the 25% quota.
Last month, union minister Piyush Goyal while speaking at a CII event had criticised the private sector for not being up to the task. “You all (in private sector) demanded and sought that vaccination be opened up for the private sector. Today, you are not even buying those 25% of vaccines (allotted to you),” Goyal had said.
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