HYDERABAD: Taking a cue from the Centre’s move to start vaccination of those above 18 years in private hospitals and vaccination centres, the Telangana government has also decided to engage private medical facilities in inoculating those in the age group. It has issued an order on Tuesday to this effect, asking private hospitals to prepare plans for vaccinating people above 18 years.
There are also orders given to private hospitals to facilitate vaccination of people at their workplaces. The workplace vaccination centre will require availability of doctors, nurses and also an emergency ambulance to deal with adverse effects.
Accordingly, private hospitals in the state said they were ready to vaccinate people above 18 years of age once the government supplied sufficient vaccines. The vaccine supply must be continuous and there must not be any gaps to allow them to run the programme seamlessly.
Dr K. Hari Prasad, president, Apollo Group Hospitals, said, "Apollo Hospitals will start vaccination from tomorrow as per the guidelines of the government of Telangana. We will now start with Covaxin and Covishield as per government regulations. We will start Sputnik V once it is available in early June."
At Continental Hospitals, 600 doses per day are available, stated chief executive officer Dr Riyaz Khan. "For the age group of 18 to 44 years, we are expecting more registrations and will plan accordingly. Continental Hospitals is also signing up with corporate offices and we are already in conversation with them as we plan to vaccinate 75,000 people in the next three months," Dr Khan said.
Other hospitals in the city want to wait and decide as per the allotment. A senior manager at a multi-speciality hospital said, "Offices have approached us but we first want to check how many doses the government will provide. There is a master plan ready for execution but it will be done effectively only when there is clarity from the government on the availability of vaccines for the private sector."
Hospitals have already started placing their demand to the government for vaccines.
Dr D.V.S. Soma Raju, executive director at SLG Hospitals, said, "We are expecting doses from June 15 and we have created a separate area in the hospital for vaccination. There are not only corporates but also different communities who have approached the hospital for the vaccination process. We are looking at offices, industrial units, community centres and have a well-equipped dedicated team of experts to carry it out. We are geared up for large scale vaccination."
Hospitals are also having a team of dedicated managers who are approaching their regular patients and their families. This is being done to give them confidence and also deal with any misconception, misnomers and clear doubts about vaccines.
