1mg collaborates with HSCC and Seekify to expand vaccinator base for scaling up COVID-19 vaccination

According to a FICCI-E&Y report ‘Protecting India: Public Private Partnership for vaccinating against COVID-19,’ one lakh healthcare professionals (as inoculators) and two lakh support staff/volunteers would be required to vaccinate the entire adult population

1mg has partnered with Healthcare Sector Skill Council (HSCC) and Seekify to launch a programme to provide adequate skills training to healthcare professionals (medical students, nursing students, pharmacists, phlebotomists, etc.) in the administration of COVID-19 vaccination.

With the second wave of COVID-19 causing widespread loss of lives, scaling up vaccination drives is the dire need of the hour to reduce hospitalisations and deaths. According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)- Ernst & Young (E&Y) report ‘Protecting India: Public Private Partnership for vaccinating against COVID-19,’ one lakh healthcare professionals (as inoculators) and two lakh support staff/volunteers would be required to vaccinate the entire adult population.

With the acute pressure on the existing healthcare infrastructure and professionals, there is an immediate need to prepare a second line of inoculators among allied health professionals. A series of noteworthy decisions have recently been taken by the Central Government in this regard. On 3^rd May 2021, it was announced that medical interns, final year MBBS students, BSC/GNM nurses could be deployed to reduce the workload on existing doctors engaged in COVID-19 duty.

Speaking about this, Dr Thomas Davis, Director – Standards and Industry Engagement, Health Sector Skill Council, said, “There is an urgent need to expand the pool of trained vaccinators in the country. Given the strain on our healthcare infrastructure, this initiative will help in training thousands of healthcare workers and preparing them in the fight against COVID-19.”

Adding to it, Dr Varun Gupta, SVP, Medical Affairs, 1mg, said, “1mg’s training programme for vaccinators has been designed with experts, and has modules on basics of vaccination, how it is to be administered, standard precautions to be taken, monitoring of side effects following immunisation and operational guidelines of the government. Post completion of these training modules, candidates would have to undergo an assessment by the Health Sector Skill Council and only successful candidates will be issued certification from HSSC and 1mg. Five hundred healthcare workers have already been trained under this programme, 1mg aims to train 10,000 professionals by collaborating with medical, nursing and pharmacy colleges.”