<Anchor> The
flu vaccination will start on the 14th of next Tuesday. Children under the age of 13 and pregnant women are eligible for national vaccination, so they can be the first to get it for free.
Reporter Park Soo-jin.
<Reporter> This
is a pediatric hospital in Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do.
Influenza vaccination for 6-month-old to 13-year-olds is next week, but the vaccine we have secured is far short.
[Lee Jong-won / Director of Pediatrics: (As usual) There should be more than 1,000, but there are only 380. It's hard to find, so it's only a third of last year... .] The
situation is similar in this department of family medicine in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul.
I was trying to get a flu vaccine through a first-come-first-served sale on a wholesale site a while ago, but it sold out quickly.
[Insang Yoo / Director of Family Medicine: The number (available for purchase) was limited to 50, and at first, they were given on a first-come, first-served basis… I reported the text message, but it's already over.] The
flu vaccine supply this year is 28 million people, similar to the previous year.
But why is it so difficult for hospitals to get a vaccine?
Vaccines for children and pregnant women are first purchased by the hospital and then reimbursed by the government and pharmaceutical companies.
If the price of a vaccine is 20,000 won, the government refunds 11,000 won and pharmaceutical companies refund 9,000 won to the hospital.
For pharmaceutical companies, it is advantageous to sell them for general inoculations that do not need to be refunded.
When I looked at the wholesale site where the actual vaccine purchase was made, the conditions were 'NIP impossible' or 'NIP applicable vaccine is not available'.
It will not be sold to children or pregnant women.
If hospitals want to vaccinate them, they have to pay their own money to buy a generic vaccine.
This is why some hospitals are not offering free vaccinations.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said it would ask pharmaceutical companies and wholesalers to cooperate through related organizations to prevent this from happening.