Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has sought COVID-19 vaccine in the ratio of 95:05 for government and private hospitals instead of 75:25 as per the Central guidelines.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) PK Mohapatra, has written to the Ministry of Health & FW, Secretary, in this regard.
“According to the revised guidelines for implementation of COVID Vaccination Programme, which will come into effect from 21″ June 2021 across the country, it has been mentioned that 25% of monthly production of vaccines by domestic manufacturers can be directly procured by Private Hospitals. However, till date, only four Private Hospitals in Odisha have been able to procure vaccines directly from the Manufacturers,” the Health ACS pointed out.
Mohapatra apprised the Centre that in Odisha the presence of private hospitals is very low and limited to only about 5% of the total health care sector in the State. Hence it is apprehended that as per the existing guidelines, Odisha will lose out on its proportionate share of 25% allocation of vaccines to the private sector.
In view of the low presence of private health care sector in Odisha, the State H&FW dept has requested that the Government: Private vaccine allocation ratio of 75:25 may be revised to 95:5 ratio, keeping in mind the ground reality.
Further, the Odisha health dept further requested the Centre that share of the private sector may be handed to the State Government for subsequent mobilization and allocation to private hospitals.
