No direct purchase, order to be placed on Co-WIN: Centre’s new vaccine procurement norms for private hospitals

July 1, 2021

In an attempt to check hoarding and profiteering from COVID-19 vaccines by some of the private players, the Centre on Wednesday issued fresh guidelines for private hospitals for vaccine procurement.
As per the new norms, private hospitals will not be allowed to acquire COVID-19 vaccines directly from the manufacturers.
As per the Union Health Ministry, the private hospitals will now have to place their vaccine order on the Co-WIN portal and make the payment through the National Health Authority.
The new vaccine purchase policy will come into effect from July 1.
This comes amid several complaints that the private hospitals are underutilising the vaccines that have been directly procured by the manufacturers.
For procuring vaccines, the private hospitals have to give information about the consumption of vaccines. The hospitals will have to inform how many vaccines are consumed in a week in a particular month.

Presently, private hospitals are allowed to procure 25 per cent of vaccines directly from manufacturers.
State governments have been directed to monitor that only 150 rupees service charge is levied by the private hospitals over the decided price of the vaccines.