PUNE: State health officials on Tuesday said they were planning to replace Covid vaccine vials lying unused at private hospitals with fresh ones but expressed apprehension over the newly replaced stock remaining unutilised till their next expiry.
“Replacement of doses will only defer today’s problem to tomorrow. The fresh vials, if given to private hospitals in place of their old stock nearing expiry, are also going to remain unused. This is going to be a recurring issue. Hence, the state government is moving slowly. The footfall for vaccination is unlikely to increase at private vaccination centres anytime soon,” a senior state health ministry official said.
Office-bearers of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have said it is a “one time exchange” that private hospitals are expecting.
“We will not take up the issue if the fresh vials provided in replacement of the old stock remain unused again. But the government should give us a one-time offer of replacement doses, as the private hospitals are also part of the country’s vaccination programme under the CoWIN portal,” said Dr Sanjay Patil, chairman of the Indian Medical Association’s Hospital Board of India (HBI).
The state health department's data has revealed that there are nearly 52 lakh Covishield doses currently lying in the reserves of private hospitals across the state, a quantity that has sparked concerns about wastage due to imminent expiry dates (February end or early March) of vials and low turnouts for paid jabs.
TOI had in its February 3 report raised the matter of unutilised vaccine reserves after the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said an estimated 50 lakh doses, lying unused at private hospitals across the country, could go to waste unless preventive measures were taken in time.
The Union health ministry had refuted the IMA’s claim. But the state's data has shown that that Maharashtra’s private hospitals alone have 52 lakh Covishield doses lying with them.
Health officials have told the private facilities to send updated data on doses with imminent expiry dates (February-end or early March) to avoid wastage. The health department survey stated that the private hospitals in Pune had the most vaccine stock in their reserves — 19.96 lakh doses. Pune is followed by Mumbai (17.95 lakh), Thane (2.89 lakh), Nashik (1.66 lakh), Palghar (1.78 lakh), Aurangabad (1.44 lakh) and Ahmednagar (1.34 lakh).
Earlier, officials from the Union health ministry had said that all states had been told to replace the near-expiry vaccine vials at their private hospitals with fresh stock. The directive comes amid fears of bulk vaccine wastage if private hospital reserves, with thousands of vials set to expire by February-end or early March, are not used up on time.
A week on since then, the directive is yet to take effect in the state, where officials said they still have not received clear guidelines from the health ministry.
