Free vaccination for Sharjah children

The move comes after Dubai recently announced hefty charges per visit for expatriates for a routine pneumococcal vaccine (PCV) that was earlier being administered free of cost. Residents say in order to avoid paying Dh350 that is being charged by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) for the vaccine, which is administered to children at two, four, six and 18 months, people are travelling to the neighbouring emirates where the vaccine is still administered free of cost.

Over the past few months, an increase in the number of parents lining up to get their children vaccinated in Sharjah has prompted health officials to issue regulations that will allow only local residents to visit Mother and Child Health (MCH) centres. People from other emirates are being asked to have the procedure done in the emirate of their residence.

Officials from Sharjah say the decision has been taken internally by the MCH centres operating under the Sharjah Medical Zone to control the excessive crowds turning towards the emirate from Dubai and Ajman.

“For some reason, people are turning to Sharjah for this facility and we were not able to meet the needs of all those visiting us,” explained Dr Hessa Khalfan Al Ghazal, Director of the MCHs in Sharjah. “So we had to take this decision to manage the crowds,” she added.

Dr Hessa, however, made it clear that these rules were not hard and fast: “Streamlining this procedure also makes it easier for us to do follow ups with the patients,” she said.

A DHA official confirmed that expatriates had to pay for the vaccine but gave no details as to when and why the fee was introduced. A DHA statement regarding the immunisation schedule sent to Khaleej Times read: “Vaccination is free for both locals and non-locals across the DHA health centres provided they have a valid health card, which can be obtained easily. This is part of the childhood vaccination programme and it is applicable from newborns to 7-year-old children. After that, children are vaccinated as part of the school immunisation programme and they follow a roster as per international guidelines and the vaccination programme is monitored by the DHA. Schools are not allowed to charge for the vaccination. Parents are free to provide additional vaccines to their children should they deem them necessary, and parents can opt out of the school vaccination programme, as well.”

Residents, however, opined that since the programme was unified and standardised for all emirates, they should be allowed to do the vaccinations wherever it suits them.

Syrian national Abdul Fattah said he took his child to Sharjah for vaccinations after Ajman MCH gave him a date of much later.

“I was apprehensive since my daughter’s vaccination was due immediately, but I was being given a date for four months later,” he explained.

“In Ajman, I was told that if I wanted it done earlier, I could either go to Sharjah, Dubai or to a private centre and pay for it,” he said.

Fattah said that when he went to Sharjah, he was asked to produce a residency contract: “Since I stay in Ajman, I could not do that,” he said. He then said that he had the vaccination done in Ajman after speaking to a senior manager: “If this is a national programme, it should be easily accessible anywhere in the UAE,” he added.

Mohammed Shoaib who holds a Dubai visa but stays in Sharjah, said the recently introduced cost for the vaccine is a huge amount. “I paid Dh200 for the health card in Dubai and now they asked us Dh350 more for the vaccine … the total was huge so I came back without the vaccination,” he said.

“At least it’s still free in Sharjah,” he added.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE