ARCHIVED - Spanish health insurance companies to collaborate in speeding up Covid vaccination campaign
Vaccine deliveries are expected to rise to 3.5 million doses per week during the spring
It has been announced that the Spanish government has bowed to pressure from national business confederations and is to allow businesses and health insurance companies to administer the Covid vaccines to employees as the national immunization campaign gathers further momentum.
According to José Luis Escrivá, the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the terms of the agreement are now being drawn up, although he clarified that companies will not be allowed to purchase doses of any of the authorized vaccines on their own account in order for their staff to “jump the queue”.
Until now it has not been considered appropriate or necessary to enlist the help of health insurance companies in the vaccination campaign because the national and regional health services were managing the workload easily enough without support, but while this week delivery is expected of approximately 2 million doses, it is anticipated that later in the spring the figure will rise to around 3.5 million per week. At that point it becomes logical, according to the Ministry, for the health insurance companies to provide assistance.
This collaboration between public and private health services has been widely called for since the vaccination campaign began in Spain at the turn of the year, and as a result the 6,800 nursing staff of health insurance companies will join the immunization campaign. The 19 companies included in the proposed agreement are Activa Mutua 2008, Asepeyo, Egarsat, Fraternidad-Muprespa, Fremap, Ibermutua, MAC (Mutua de Accidentes de Canarias), MAZ (Mutua de accidentes de Zaragoza), Mutua Balear, Mutua de Andalucía y Ceuta, Mutua Intercomarcal, Mutua Montañesa, Mutua Navarra, Mutua Universal (Mugenat), MC Mutual, Mutualia, Solimat, Umivale and Unión de Mutuas (Unimat).