Health Secretary, IMA to meet to resolve vaccine registration concerns

PANJIM: Health Secretary Ravi Dhawan has called members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Goa unit for a meeting on Thursday to resolve the concerns raised by them with regard to the failure to upload the names of their health workers on the Co-Win portal for the ongoing vaccination drive.

IMA members Dr Babita Angle and Dr Harshad Kamat on Tuesday had met with State officials, including District Collectors and Directorate of Health Services (DHS), during which the authorities claimed that following directions from the Central government, the uploading process has been frozen. 

Speaking to Herald, IMA Goa chief Dr Vinayak Buvaji said that the Health Secretary has called for a meeting on Thursday to discuss the issue. “Due to a technical error, names of IMA health workers are not reflected on the portal and as such they are unable to get vaccinated. We requested the government to re-add the names. However, they declined stating that the Centre has frozen the registration process,” he explained.

Buvaji said that a solution has to be worked out and accordingly they have written to DHS with suggestions, including registration on the spot, which can be considered depending on the availability of the vaccine dose. 

“At the end everyone has to get the vaccination. But to avoid chaos, it is better that all the health workers from the State are covered in the ongoing phase,” he explained.

The IMA chief said that in the next phase, police, government officials and journalists would be covered. “If we let the health workers to be part of second phase there could be confusion. This needs to be avoided,” he said. 

Stating that IMA has not taken any decision to withdraw from the vaccination drive or to threaten the government, Buvaji said that IMA is confident that the government would resolve the issue. “We will provide full support to the State in the vaccination drive,” he said. 

Later speaking, Angle said that the issue pertaining to freezing of the names of health workers was discussed in the meeting held on Tuesday and it was informed that the order to do the same had come from the Centre.