16 family members of Coombe staff received the Covid vaccine

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly spoke with the chairman of the Dublin Coombe Hospital board of directors about the administration of Covid-19 vaccines to family members of hospital staff on Friday, January 8.

A spokesman for Donnelly said the minister understands the board will discuss the matter later today.

Earlier, Minister Donnelly said he would seek a “full account” of the hospital after 16 vaccinations were administered to family members of the staff.

In a statement this morning, Donnelly said she learned of a situation regarding the administration of vaccinations last night Friday at the Coombe University Hospital for Women and Children.

“Confidence in the vaccine program is vitally important and what happened should not have happened,” the statement added.

“Our vaccine allocation strategy clearly sets a priority list for vaccination, and that is currently for front-line healthcare workers and residents and staff of our long-term residential care facilities.

“It does not include relatives of health workers.”

Coombe Hospital has said that as of 9 pm on Friday, January 8, 16 doses of vaccine remained after 1,100 employees, GPs and local community health workers were vaccinated.

In a statement, a spokesperson said that if the doses had not been administered they would have been discarded.

He goes on to say that the portal and the reservation system of the Executive of the Health Service were not yet active and, therefore, it was not possible to reserve vaccines in advance and therefore be sure of the number of vaccines needed.

The spokesperson said the hospital worked around the clock, reconstituting the vials and making the vaccines available to front-line workers.

“The hospital team proactively contacted HSE to inform them of the additional doses available and actively sought out front-line workers to vaccinate.

“The hospital followed the government’s guidelines and focused on the two current priority groups.”

At the end of the day, when there were 16 doses of vaccines left “and to ensure that the vaccines were not wasted, they were administered to relatives of hospital employees.”

“Of the 16 recipients, nine were over 70 years old and the remaining seven were of different ages. It would not be appropriate for the hospital to comment on the people involved.”

Coombe University Hospital for Women and Infants teacher Professor Michael O’Connell said: “The decision to use vaccines that had already been developed was made to ensure that not a single reconstituted vaccine was wasted.

“Had they not been used they would have been discarded. I was well aware of that and throughout the night and from 9.30pm onwards, I personally did my best to prioritize and identify additional frontline workers and followed all measures available at that time.

“In retrospect, as a Teacher, I deeply regret that the employees’ families have been vaccinated and for that I sincerely apologize.”

Meanwhile, a respiratory consultant and clinical director of the Department of Medicine and Covid Lead at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has said that he has a lot of sympathy for Coombe Hospital in these circumstances.

Dr. Ian Counihan explained that there was a lot of pressure to start vaccinating people as quickly as possible and the challenge with the vaccine is that once thawed and prepared, it must be given in a short period of time or the vaccine. the doses would be lost.

However, he added, he wondered why hospitals that have had demonstrably lower cases of Covid-19 over the past year, such as Coombe, received vaccinations for their staff compared to other large acute care hospitals with high levels of coronavirus patients. .

A clinical nurse director at Nenagh General Hospital said she doesn’t think people realize what frontline workers are going through right now.

Louise Morgan Walsh said it’s wrong for front-line workers to have to “beg” for a Covid-19 vaccine.

Last Friday, she and her colleagues made a video asking the Taoiseach and the Minister of Health to provide them with the doses of the vaccine.

Morgan Walsh said the launch of the vaccine at the hospital was due to begin last Monday, but they were notified that there were no vaccines available to them and did not receive clarity on when the launch would begin.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, she said she felt sick when she heard that 16 family members of Coombe staff received the vaccine.

“I don’t think people realize what front-line staff are going through right now, and it’s not just at Nenagh hospital, but across the country. We’ve seen patients die with no family members by their side. we know”.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said that what happened at Coombe Hospital should not have happened and that is why the Health Minister responded quickly to the issue.

However, Donohoe said public health policies and vaccination systems are accelerating and more than 75,000 people were vaccinated last week.

This weekend, he said, 1,800 GPs and residents and staff of 13 nursing homes were vaccinated.

Continuing and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said he is concerned about the report that there should be very clear clinical prioritization.

He expressed concern that some frontline healthcare workers have yet to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, adding that there needs to be a protocol on who gets the leftover vaccines.

In this case, he said, the facts must be established and also what the HSE told the hospital to do regarding the leftover vaccines must be established.

Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said the situation should not have happened and that clear protocols are needed on leftover vaccines.

He said a reserve list could be created for unused doses, but said he wants the vaccine to reach the most vulnerable and front-line personnel first.