Booster doses for docs’ families irk other health workers

By Rathindra Kuruwita

President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS), Ravi Kumudesh yesterday criticised the decision to allocate the remaining 12,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to family members of doctors when there were many others who should be in priority groups who were not vaccinated.

Kumudesh said that Sri Lankans did not make a fuss when most of the AstraZeneca vaccine doses were allocated to the health sector because people understood the importance of protecting people who were likely to be exposed to SARS-CoV-2.

“Now, people are getting angry. At a time when there are many groups that are more vulnerable to the virus and are not inoculated, while the doctors have managed to secure the last doses of the vaccine for their family members and the health ministry has pushed aside other health sector staff from getting a share of the vaccine to their families. This is ugly and people will lose the respect they have for health workers,” he said.

On Monday some relatives of doctors were vaccinated at a doctors’ quarters by people in civilian clothing, the CMLS head said. “This is against the accepted norms of vaccination as there were no officers to officially keep tabs of what’s going on.

“Everyone wants to protect their families but there are segments that are much more exposed. For example, what about teachers? Since shops and food delivery places have been instructed to operate, what about shop owners and staff, food delivery persons and three-wheeler drivers? The priority list is not decided on your education or social status, it’s based on how exposed you are to the people. To be honest, there are some health sector staff that are less exposed to COVID-19 than the groups I mentioned,” Kumudesh said.

The CMLS President added that from the beginning of the vaccination process, the health Ministry created an environment that was conducive to fraud. After frontline staff was vaccinated; the AstraZeneca jab was administered to those over 60 and those in potential hotspots. When residents of hotspots were vaccinated; so-called VIPs, including doctors, managed to sneak in their friends and family to be vaccinated.

“This is how all these family members of doctors had got the first AstraZeneca jab. We have urged the President to look into this. If these family members are residents of hotspots, they can prove it easily. According to Health Ministry guidelines, we have to account for even a Paracetamol that we issue, but now not only does the Health Ministry openly admit that something fraudulent had taken place, it is also encouraging other health sector categories to fight over Sinopahrm quotas. This is ugly and this is something that can affect the reputation of health staff,” he said.