Covid vaccination: Unregistered hospitals, clinics under government lens

Hyderabad: The exercise by health department to identify frontline health staff in all districts for administering Covid vaccine is throwing light on the rampant presence of hospitals and clinics that are not registered with the department is coming.

DMHOs (District Medical and Health Officers) have been tasked to get the data of frontline health staff including doctors, nurses, paramedics, technicians and support staff working in both government and private hospitals and also in private clinics in their jurisdiction.

While registered hospitals have submitted the data of frontline health staff, unregistered hospitals and clinics or those which have not renewed their registrations have not responded to the call. DMHOs are currently busy uploading staff data collected from hospitals and clinics in the last few days. "If we take the case of Ranga Reddy district, 695 hospitals and private clinics shared employees information for administering the vaccine. However, 74 hospitals and clinics did not show any interest. Out of them, 18 are found to be unregistered and notices have been served to managements to abide by the rules. And if they fail to do so, they will not allowed to run, as the health of public could be at risk if treatment is offered at such places" according to a health department official.

Hyderabad district officials said they would focus on unregistered health establishments once the frontline health staff data is uploaded for vaccination purposes. Telangana Network Hospitals Association President Dr V Rakesh stated that lives of people could be put to risk if unregistered hospitals and practitioners extend medical treatment. This has been a long-pending issue that needed health department attention and it is welcome that DMHOs in all district are focussing on this now, he added.