Small hospitals in Bengaluru's Jigani, Bommasandra unable to get Covid-19 vaccines for garment workers

Small and mid-sized private hospitals in Jigani and Bommasandra industrial areas, South Bengaluru, say they aren’t able to secure vaccine supplies.

The industrial areas house hundreds of garment factories which employ more than 30,000 people, mostly floor and garment workers. A majority of them are women.

While these poorly paid garment factory workers mostly depend on government vaccination centres — where the jabs are free — the shortage of supplies is a problem. Garment factory workers have been classified as priority groups for Covid vaccination but there’s still no dedicated drive for them.

Their other option is private hospitals — where the vaccine is paid — but they, too, are short of vaccines.

Hospitals say garment industries have been approaching them for vaccines, but they have to turn them away. The minimum order requirements put by vaccine manufactures have put them at a disadvantage.

ACE Suhas Multi-Speciality Hospital, Jigani, is a 50-bed hospital. Its medical director, Dr Jagadish Hiremath, says they haven’t received the vaccines even after repeated attempts.

“There is a flaw in the distribution system. The government needs to fix it,” he said.

He continued: “We had started the vaccination when the government supplied the doses to all hospitals on a daily basis. After that, we ordered 15,000 doses of Covishield and about 3,000 doses of Covaxin. Neither manufacturer has responded to us. We have been sending e-mails since April and there has been no response.”

Dr Hiremath argued that the shortages would deprive the 30,000 labourers. “Who is going to vaccinate these people? Their employers approach us but we are not able to give the vaccines,” he said.

Rukmini V P, president of the Garment Labour Union, said garment workers wouldn’t usually go to private hospitals for vaccines simply because they couldn’t afford them. “Garment workers aren’t paid well. Many of them have lost jobs. How can they pay Rs 1,000 for a vaccine,” she said and urged the state government to vaccinate garment workers on priority.

Starting June 21, both government and private hospitals will get equitable access to vaccines provided by the Centre to state governments as per the revised national guidelines on Covid vaccination.

The guidelines say: “States/UTs would aggregate the demand of private hospitals keeping in view equitable distribution between large and small private hospitals and regional balance. Based on this aggregated demand, the government of India will facilitate supply of these vaccines to the private hospitals and their payment through the National Health Authority’s electronic platform.”

Dr Y L Rajashekar, Secretary, Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA), said: “Effective June 21, all private hospitals will buy vaccines from the state government. PHANA had demanded this.”