Nagpur: No doses, no clarity, yet private hospitals ready for mass vaccine drive

MUMBAI: Private hospitals in the city were left clueless about continuation of the vaccination drive against Covid as they ran out of vials and also no guidelines being issued for the next phase starting May 1.
TOI spoke with a couple of big hospitals where the administrators said they were getting a lot of queries from several groups and class of citizens for tie-up to carry out drives. However, they said, they are unable to answer any query as cost and modalities are yet to be notified.
Seven Star hospital's Dr Sadasiv Bhole said that there is no clarity on “how much we are going to get”. “And beneficiaries, especially those wanting their second shots, have started rushing to hospitals. The message they are getting is that there is adequate stock,” he said.
The hospital plans to convert the entire ground floor into a vaccination centre “provided we get adequate stock”. “It is important to vaccinate the whole population. Lockdown has not worked and what has is vaccination,” added Dr Bhole.
Seven Star will not be admitting any patient in their OPD for 15 days. “We can do a massive drive. We have trained staff and cold chains,” said Dr Bhole.
Dr Tushar Gawad, director of administration at Alexis Multi speciality Hospital, said so far there is no clarity with regard to purchase of vaccines. “We have written to manufacturers. They responded that they have obligations to the central as well as state governments and can’t meet the needs of private establishments right now. So we will have to buy from the state government. As far as state government is concerned, as of now it doesn’t have enough stock for its own CVCs hence can't give vaccines to private CVCs,” he said.
Alexis hasn’t run the vaccination programme since two days. “We ran out of stock. We have written to the concerned authorities requesting for supply of vaccines,” said Dr Gawad, adding that they would continue with their current target of around 200 jabs per day.
Dr Shantanu Sengupta, director of Sengupta Hospital, said they are eagerly waiting for the standard operating procedure on the next phase of vaccination. “Whatever the government says, we would be willing to help. We were the first private hospital to start Covid vaccination in the city on March 3. We are not only happy to vaccinate but also wish to educate whoever is interested in how to give a vaccine. For example, if citizens wish to volunteer in the drive, we will seek their support,” he said.