No data on Covid-19 vaccines supplied to private hospitals

We don’t have data now, an official said

As people struggle for vaccines amid limited supply, lack of transparency over purchase of doses by the private sector is a cause for concern with fears that big hospitals are ‘monopolising’ procurement.

Though the private sector has administered more than 26.67 lakh doses till date in the state, the Health Department has supply data for only 15.63 lakh doses out of orders placed for 21.71 lakh doses by 33 private establishments till June 2.

An official told DH, “We have asked the Union Health Ministry for data. We don’t have data now.”

According to the Health Department, Manipal Hospital Group has been supplied 3.01 lakh doses, followed by Apollo group (2.9 lakh), Aster CMI Hospital (2.48 lakh), Narayana Health group 2 lakh and Fortis group (85,000).

Apollo said it has administered 2.8 lakh doses (96 per cent), NH 1.2 lakh (60 per cent), and Fortis 63,000 odd doses (75 per cent).

Manipal and Aster CMI did not reveal the vaccine stock remaining with them.

The need to track the number of doses supplied to private hospitals and the resultant coverage becomes important as only 20.33 per cent of state population has received the first dose and a mere 4.33 per cent got the second dose ahead of the unlock and amid concerns of a new Delta variant and a possible third wave.

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The Karnataka High Court on May 27 had expressed concern over private hospitals procuring 18,000 doses more than the 25 per cent quota of total vaccines produced and asked the Centre to make its stand clear on the issue.

Some members of Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) have also questioned the lack of access to vaccine doses. The association, in a recent letter to Health Minister K Sudhakar, stated that “a few hospitals, especially the large chain corporate hospitals have taken the lion’s share of state’s quota of vaccines depriving small and medium size hospitals”.

According to PHANA, 6,000 private hospitals are registered under the KPME Act.

The latest guidelines, to come into effect from June 21, have put the state government in charge of sourcing vaccines for private hospitals. The private sector will be entitled to 25 per cent of the vaccines which cannot be purchased from manufacturers directly and has to be channeled via the government. However, it is unclear if officials can lay their hands on the data for the last five weeks.

Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Jawaid Akhtar, told DH, “Earlier, we did not have the need to maintain supply data, the Union government did it. From now, we will have it as supply will happen through us. From Monday (June 21), all supplies will be routed through the state government. We are collecting the ‘demand’ from hospitals and sending it to the Centre, once they allocate it, we will do the job of a nodal officer for vaccine procurement.”

‘Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar told DH, “I agree that currently the procurement is skewed in favour of the large cities, especially metros, with most of the procurement being monopolised by large corporate hospital chains. Small and medium-scale private hospitals in the state are finding it hard to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers.

We are looking into this matter and we will certainly address this soon to ensure equitable distribution of vaccine,” he added.