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Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will ask the cabinet to approve an agreement with doctors and pharmacists to administer Covid-19 vaccines.
The agreement would entail a payment of 60 euros for each vaccinated patient to members of the Irish Medical Organization and the Union of Irish Pharmacies.
This would cover two injections for every vaccinated member of the public.
The agreement would see the government allocate 91 million euros for the vaccines to be administered to approximately 1.5 million people, and the state would bear the cost of the agreement.
It is scheduled to run for a period of six months before undergoing a review.
It is expected that doctors and pharmacists will primarily administer the Oxford / AztraZeneca vaccine, as it does not need to be kept at very low temperatures.
In the event that a single dose product is available, they will be paid € 35 per injection.
Minister Donnelly is also expected to update the cabinet today on vaccine implementation plans.
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Some 140,000 people are expected to be vaccinated next Sunday.
It will be made up of some 70,000 health workers and approximately 70,000 residents and staff from long-term care facilities.
SIPTU has said that there is a lack of clarity regarding who should receive a Covid-19 vaccine at health facilities.
On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland program, SIPTU health division organizer Kevin Figgis said the union has been approached by categories of staff, such as radiologists, who have shown up at hospitals to receive the vaccine, but who they have been rejected.
However, the same categories have received it in other facilities, he said.
Figgis said the HSE has corrected a number of cases in which the union raised concerns, but the situation underscores the confusion around the issue.
He said that recent media reports of excess doses being given to family members do not instill confidence that the “reduction plan” for the use of additional doses is being carried out as it should be.
The chairman of the IMO’s committee of general practitioners said that general practitioners must be a component of the vaccine deployment if mass vaccination is to be achieved.
Dr. Denis McCauley said that as soon as the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is approved, it can be implemented because it can be easily stored.
He also said that people over the age of 70 and without pre-existing conditions could be expected to be vaccinated before Easter.
He said GPs will be asked to identify the groups that will receive the vaccine first and urged patients not to call their GPs, but to wait to be contacted.
He said GPs administered a million doses of flu in a six-week period just before Christmas, adding that the reason it took six weeks was because the supply was “quite stuttering.”
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