Vaccine price at private hospitals to shoot up from May 1 in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Citizens aged above 45 who were getting Covid vaccines Covishield and Covaxin at Rs 250 a dose at private hospitals will have to fork out several times more from May 1. With no cap set on the price charged by private hospitals, there are fears that it could led to profiteering. The differential pricing has already received flak from Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

The health and family welfare ministry, in a letter to the state health department, has said the system of supplying vaccine stocks to private Covid vaccination centres (CVCs) at Rs 150 per dose will cease from May 1.
Even those who have received one dose of the vaccine at Rs 250 will have to pay a much higher amount. However, the government has not fixed any rate for vaccination at private hospitals. It has only stated that the CVCs have to declare the vaccine time and rate on Co-WIN. Incidentally, everyone who seeks a vaccine will still have to register on the portal.
Doctors have expressed concern over the lack of regulation in pricing the vaccine that private hospitals will be able to purchase at Rs 600 per dose. They feel that the government should cap the price to prevent hospitals from profiteering. To ensure that the current vaccines procured by the Centre at Rs 150 per dose and handed out to the state for those above 45 is not used by private hospitals when the drive is extended to all adults from May 1, it has asked states to match the books and take back the leftover stock after April 30.
“States need to do a complete stock taking of the funds deposited by private CVCs, vaccine doses supplied to them, vaccine doses utilized so far and doses likely to be utilized by April 30. Any unutilized vaccine stock, balance as on April 30, will have to be returned to the cold-chain point from where they were issued. The state must make a careful assessment of the potential for full utilization of such vaccine doses up to April 30 before issuing any further stock to private CVCs,” health and family welfare ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan stated in the letter to the state health secretary.
Facing criticism over a new vaccine policy that could have people paying a lot more for a Covid shot, the government put out a clarification on Saturday. It said that vaccines procured by the Centre would be provided free to states. However, the statement did not comment on the higher prices of vaccines sourced by states and private hospitals directly from the manufacturers.