KOLKATA:
Hospitals across Kolkata — both from the state and the private sector — put the final finishing touches to their arrangements and sailed past initial glitches on the eve of joining the
Covid vaccination exercise on Saturday that will see nine state hospitals, five urban primary health centres (UPHC) and at least four private ones inoculate more than 1,800 health workers who have been chosen to be the first beneficiaries of the gigantic exercise that aims to stop the pandemic.
Even though recipients were supposed to receive SMSes informing them about the time and venue of inoculation, Co-WIN, the software through which it was planned, failed to take off, leading to some confusion. Hospitals then chose to either call up the beneficiaries or informed them through notifications. Many were also informed verbally.
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How the first phase of vaccination goes will be important; it will help the system identify possible flaws and rectify them for the next phases, which are expected to be tougher because they will cover larger sections of the population. All instructions must be followed if we are to have a glitch-free rollout. Recipients’ cooperation is essential.
“Our 100 beneficiaries have been selected randomly across all levels, starting from senior faculty members to postgraduate and MBBS students, nurses, paramedics and support staff like sweepers,” said Raghunath Misra, medical superintendent and vice-principal (MSVP) at the Institute of Post Graduate Medicine and Educational Research (IPGMER).
Throughout the first half of Thursday, there was not much clarity on how the beneficiaries would be chosen. Sources said the Co-WIN app was supposed to choose beneficiaries randomly. But late on Thursday, hospitals were asked to prepare a list of 100 health workers each.
“Senior officials, such as our principal, to sweepers and ambulance drivers, they all figure on the list of our first 100 beneficiaries. We have circulated the list in the hospital and informed all those concerned,” said Asis Manna, MSVP, Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General Hospital.
Hospital officials have intimated departmental heads about the beneficiaries listed to ensure that they turn up for the vaccination.
The lists of beneficiaries have also been forwarded to the nodal officer at Swasthya Bhawan. “We are not sure yet whether text messages from Swasthya Bhawan will go to the beneficiaries or not. But we have informed each and every beneficiary,” said a source at
Medical College and Hospital.
At least 400 health workers from four city private hospitals — AMRI, Peerless, Apollo Gleneagles and RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) — will receive the
vaccine at their respective workplaces on Saturday. On Friday, a list of 100 beneficiaries were sent by each hospital to the health department, which has given its nod to for them to join the exercise by inoculating their own staffers. Around 35 employees from three of the hospitals underwent training to carry out vaccination at the RTIICS campus on Friday.
Each of the four hospitals have been asked to collect the vaccines from the nearest storing centres by 8.30am and begin the process at 10.30am. They are, however, yet to be informed about the next batch of beneficiaries to be vaccinated on Sunday.
In order to ensure full attendance, some hospitals have listed only those who are “absolutely willing” to take the shot, said an official at Calcutta National Medical College.
Altogether, 204 vaccination sites will be operational for now across the state. Apart from the five teaching medical colleges (IPGMER, Medical College Kolkata, NRS Medical College, Calcutta National Medical College and RG Kar Medical College), four other hospitals (ID Hospital, Chittaranjan Seva Sadan, BC Roy Memorial Hospital for Children and School of Tropical Medicine) will have vaccination sites. UPHCs in boroughs 2, 3, 7, 9 and 11 are the other centres.