Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has shelved its plans of 'Vaccination on call' drive at the current juncture due to shortage of doctors, Chairman Board of Administrators, KMC Firhad Hakim said on Saturday.
"While working on the modalities for 'Vaccine on call' service, we have realised that availability of doctors is a deterrent for delivering such service. As per guidelines of Health department and ICMR, after a vaccine is administered a person needs to be monitored by a doctor for half-an-hour. If we go to a particular address for vaccinating one or two individuals then the total time span involved will be nearly two hours. So assuming that a doctor works for 10-12 hours we can vaccinate only 5-6 persons, if we cater to 'Vaccine on call'. However, in an urban health centre, 400-500 people can be vaccinated in 10-12 hours in presence of a single doctor," said Hakim.
Elaborating on this, he said that it will take more or less half-an-hour time to go to a particular address for 'Vaccine on Call'. Then after inoculation, the doctor has to wait for half-an-hour as per rules for monitoring and then return back. So, for giving the jab to a single person, a doctor has to dedicate nearly one-and-half to two hours of time.
Moreover, spot registration for the beneficiaries during 'Vaccination on call' will also be a challenging proposition.
Hakim, however, assured that in case of senior citizens or physically challenged persons who find it difficult to move or wait arrangements can be made for prompt vaccination at the nearest urban primary health centres.
Two calls seeking arrangements for vaccination of elderly persons were received by Hakim at the Talk to KMC programme on Saturday and Hakim arranged for their vaccination at a nearby health centre.
"Community vaccine at a particular housing complex or apartment when 25-30 people can be vaccinated through camps may be done but inoculating a person individually is not possible," he added.
Hakim said that 'Vaccination on call' can be done only when inoculation of a reasonable number of people is completed.