In order to boost the pace of vaccination in the city, Mumbai’s renowned Bombay Hospital in Marine Lines will now provide free vaccines to all from today, November 19.
With this, Bombay Hospital becomes the first private hospital in the city to provide free vaccination. Until now, private hospitals have only vaccinated people living in slums for free with the help of CSR (corporate social responsibility) funding.
The hospital will only provide Covishield doses and people can come for first and second shots.
The hospital has tied up with LIC HFL and NGO Golden Hour Foundation to fund the doses. Currently, only 17,000 shots are available.
The hospital management officials said that this will help to cover more people. The hospital also mentioned that they will bear the service charge of INR 150, which means the agencies would be paying the hospital only the cost of the vaccine. The agencies have given INR 50 lakhs to the hospital.
The development comes at a time when the paid vaccinations witnesses a drastic drop in demand since October. Reports stated that over 45 lakh doses are lying with private hospitals in Mumbai, Thane and Pune.
Several experts have advised that the private hospitals should vaccinate for free or find CSR donors so that doses don’t get wasted.
Share
Tweet
