BMC to consider private hospitals for COVID-19 vaccination centres

Private healthcare providers have said that they are also keen on offering COVID-19 vaccination, with the Union government stating that its priority now is to vaccinate the most vulnerable groups immediately.

Hence, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked for a list of healthcare workers working in large private hospitals in Mumbai. In fact, private hospitals have also been asked to set up vaccination centres.

Subsequently, the civic body is now considering the possibility of declaring private hospitals as centres for vaccination of frontline workers and the elderly.

There are currently 10 vaccination centres in Mumbai. Of these, nine are municipal hospitals and one is a government hospital. Last week, the Mumbai Trust and the Association of Private Hospitals had demanded that some private hospitals be set up as vaccination centres so that more health workers could be vaccinated at the earliest. In such a situation, the corporation has sought the details of the employees registered on the Co-Win app from large private hospitals.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani informed that discussions are underway to allow them to be vaccinated in the second and third phase.

Healthcare staff

About 50 per cent of Mumbai's health workers work in private hospitals. Some private hospitals have about 2,000 health workers each. The only problem for employees is that they have to travel long distances to get vaccinated. So, they urged to get vaccinated in their own hospital.

The number of vaccination units at 10 vaccination centres in Mumbai has been increased from 32 to 65 per cent on Monday, January 25. In addition, the number of beneficiaries has also increased. However, only 77 per cent of the health workers are reaching the vaccination centres. On Monday, the municipal corporation aimed to vaccinate 6,500 people. However, only 5,005 beneficiaries received the vaccine.

Number of people vaccinated: