PANAJI
The Directorate of Health Services (DHS) has finally issued a stern warning through the Indian Medical Association (Goa) to all private hospitals and clinics which were allegedly found to have vaccinated non-healthcare workers and persons not registered on the Co-WIN portal of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare using the doses of Covid-19 vaccine allotted to them.
DHS has now threatened to discontinue the supply of the vaccine to the private medical establishments, which have been found to have erred.
Dr Rajendra Borkar, Chief Medical Officer, District Immunisation Programme of the DHS, wrote to the IMA on Sunday following receipt of several complaints that some private hospitals have indulged in vaccinating those who are not healthcare workers and also those who are not registered on the Co-WIN portal.
“This has been viewed seriously by the State government and the Government of India. The Health Department will be forced to stop providing the vaccine to such hospitals and institutions and the whole programme of Covid vaccination may get disturbed,” reads the letter addressed by Dr Borkar to the IMA.
The IMA has now been entrusted with the responsibility of not only investigating the matter and raising the issue with individual hospitals and clinics but all seven branches of IMA have also been asked to remain alert to ensure that no deviations from Government of India guidelines occur in the future.
Sources from the DHS revealed that the issue is likely to come up for a discussion at the meeting of the task force convened on Tuesday evening.
During the last week of January 2021, a Margao-based family-run private hospital was rumoured to have lined up all members of its family, majority of whom were non-HCWs, to receive a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on the last Saturday of the month. The family is reportedly well-connected in political circles.
With the DHS missive being issued only on Sunday, it could not be verified if the said private hospital went ahead with the inoculation of these non-HCWs using the doses allotted to it.
Over 3,500 HCWs received a dose of ‘Covidshield’, the Covid-19 vaccination in Goa till the end of January. The state has so far received 41,500 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from MoHFW.
