1mg collaborates with HSSC and Seekify to expand base of vaccinators

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

According to the FICCI E&Y Report ‘Protecting India: Public Private Partnership for vaccinating against COVID-19’, ~1 lakh healthcare professionals (as inoculators) and ~2 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.

Speaking about this, Dr Thomas Davis, Director of 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.

Dr Varun Gupta, SVP, Medical Affairs at 1mg said, “1mg’s training program 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 immunization, 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. 500 healthcare workers have already been trained under this program, 1mg aims to train 10,000 professionals by collaborating with medical, nursing, and pharmacy colleges.”