Divide exposed: Private hospitals have lion’s share of Mumbai’s highest single-day vaccinations

A beneficiary gets vaccinated at Sree Cinema BMC health post in Mahim. Pic/Ashish Raje

With the city recording the highest number of single-day vaccinations on Monday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data reveals that private hospitals administered the maximum number of doses. Of more than 93,000 shots given, private hospitals accounted for almost 73,000. While earlier 45 private centres were giving the jabs, the number increased to 50 on Monday.

A beneficiary gets inoculated at Nair Hospital. Pic/Ashish Raje

However, civic officials claimed that the majority of the private hospitals that have procured vaccines, were within the city limits. But what is slowly becoming a matter of concern is that the underprivileged sections of the society are not getting access to the vaccines, as they can't afford the high rates of private centres.

Civic officials said that they had to rely on the stock provided by the central government because the BMC was not doing any direct procurement. According to the Government of India's earlier policy, states were to procure their own stock from open markets and distribute it among the districts. But as the policy has changed, now the central government allots stocks to states, which in turn is resulting in vaccine shortage across Maharashtra.

Requesting anonymity, a civic official said, "Earlier, states were to procure their own stock. However, as it was becoming a problem, the GOI revised the policy and started supplying stocks to states. In all of this, we hardly get any stock in a week or 10 days, and it's not enough considering the city's population. It is important to distribute vaccines among districts, especially in the rural parts of the state, as people do not have access to private healthcare there. The vaccine shortage is also a reason why people are going to private hospitals for the shots. Majority of the vaccinations over the past two to three weeks have taken place in private hospitals."

Mohsin Haider, a Congress leader from Andheri, said, "The BMC is only helping the private hospitals gain revenue as many civic centres in the area are not functioning properly and many a times they are shut for three to four days in a week due to shortage. This is leading to problems for underprivileged people, as not many of them can afford to get vaccinated at private centres."

Dr Gautam Bhansali, chief coordinator of all private hospitals in the city, said, "We are able to vaccinate so many beneficiaries because they are willing to get inoculated. Various housing complexes and offices are approaching us to conduct vaccination drives because of which the numbers are rising. They are also willing to pay for their doses."

50
No. of private hospitals in the vaccination drive