Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the entire stock of Covid-19 vaccines is available only to the governments -- Centre and the states -- and not to private hospitals.
He said vaccines at a time when the pandemic has wreaked havoc across the country, should be administered to citizens free of cost or at least at affordable rates.
In his two-page-long letter, Reddy said the Centre's policy decision to allow private hospitals to directly purchase vaccines is sending out wrong signals to the people.
Recently, the Government of India issued guidelines for liberalized pricing and revised Covid-19 vaccination strategy. As per the liberalised policy, private hospitals willing to provide vaccination services may procure vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers, exclusively from the 50% supply earmarked for "other than the Government of India" channel.
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"The policy decision of the Government of India in this regard to allow private hospitals to directly purchase vaccines is sending out wrong signals to the people. Due to the price differential offered to them and also the flexibility available to the private hospitals to fix the price of their vaccines, these hospitals are charging as high as 2,000/25,000 rupees for each dose from the public. This makes these doses one of the costliest in the world and inviting criticism from the general public. The vaccine is for the public good and ideally, it needs to be given free of cost or at least at affordable rates," Reddy wrote.
"In a situation where there is not enough supply to cater to even the 45+ age group completely, and no possibility of taking up the free vaccination of the 18-44 years for the next few months, it appears very unreasonable to allow some private sector hospitals to vaccinate people of all age groups at such exorbitant rates. Not only it is a disadvantage to the poorer sections of the society who cannot afford such high cost, but it also creates a situation of black marketing of the vaccine, which administratively is a herculean task to control," he stated.
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The letter further read, "Making available various options to the public to get vaccinated, in both government and private hospitals, would be a good idea only if there is surplus supply and availability of vaccines, wherein anyone can choose any mode as per his/her choice/financial capability. In today's situation, where vaccine supply is very limited, providing this option to the private hospitals, wherein they charge an exorbitant price, is socially unacceptable and administratively difficult to monitor."
