Woman books private hospital slot, taken to government site, asked to pay

Gurgaon: The health department on Monday initiated an internal inquiry and issued a show-cause notice to a private hospital in Sector 31 following a complaint by a Gurgaon resident about a ‘fake vaccination camp’.
The complainant said she had booked a slot on Co-WIN portal at Chiranjeevi hospital. After reaching the facility on Saturday, she was informed that the centre was not administering jabs as it did not have vaccines to carry out the drive. The woman was instead directed to a government site and a hospital staff accompanied her, she said.
After they reached the government site, the hospital employee spoke to a staff nurse. The woman, 33, alleged that even before she received her jab, she received her certificate issued in the name of the private hospital. After the shot, she was asked to pay. She refused as vaccines at government sites are free.
The health department has begun a preliminary probe. “We found a lot of gaps. We asked Gurgaon Police to lodge an FIR against the hospital and conduct a detailed inquiry,” said Gurgaon chief medical officer Virender Yadav.
According to the department’s probe, the private hospital was a designated private Covid vaccination centre till April 30. From May 1, the hospitals were supposed to procure vaccines on their own. However, the hospital did not have Covid vaccines to carry out the drive after April 30, said the department. After April 30, the hospital organised camps on at least four occasions — June 26, June 30, July 1 and July 3 — where it inoculated a total of 53 recipients and provided them certificates. While 27 people got jabs on June 26, 11 were inoculated on June 30, seven on July 1 and eight on July 3.
It was found that the hospital had asked recipients to get their vaccination done at Delhi’s Aero City. The department is probing how it was giving jabs when it did not have any doses. “The hospital has not yet revealed who carried out the drive there,” said Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer, Gurgaon. There was no response when TOI tried to contact Chiranjeevi hospital owner Amrish Soni.