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The Department of Agriculture strongly recommended that HSE stop using ViraPro hand sanitizer more than fifteen days before it was removed from health facilities and schools.
Documents obtained by RTÉ News show that an official from the Department of Agriculture sent an email to the HSE to “strongly recommend that all ViraPro disinfectant product currently in use at the HSE be removed” on October 7.
However, it took more than two weeks, on October 23, before HSE formally issued a recall notice to direct its healthcare facilities to stop using the product.
The documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act, also show that the HSE was first alerted to a problem with the product on or before September 29, almost a month before the recall.
In a statement, the Department of Agriculture said an initial warning was issued, only to the HSE, after it received the results of preliminary tests on samples of the ViraPro supply from the HSE.
A statement from HSE said after initial notice from the Department of Agriculture that it quarantined all stocks and verbally agreed not to take further action until test results were available. When they were, he said he acted in a timely and appropriate manner.
But unions say this episode highlights the many questions they have about the HSE’s handling of the ViraPro issue.
SIPTU Deputy Secretary General John King said the delay in informing healthcare workers was unacceptable and demonstrated what he said was the “indifferent” attitude of the HSE on the issue.
He said unions meet weekly with the HSE to discuss Covid-19 and it is “disappointing” that potential problems have not been brought up with employee representatives at an earlier stage, as he said healthcare workers would have had to use the product numerous times and hours during a single shift.
INMO has said that it has requested specific information from the HSE on the areas affected by the ViraPro problem.
INMO Secretary General Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that the safety of health personnel had to be the number one priority.
“Without a safe health staff, we will not be able to provide care to those who need it,” he said.
The problems with the ViraPro disinfectant first came to light on October 22 when schools received an alert from the Department of Education to stop using the product, just before the midterm break ended.
Testing showed the product contained methanol rather than ethanol, and the Department of Agriculture warned that prolonged use of the product could cause dermatitis, eye irritation, upper respiratory irritation, and headaches.
The following day, the HSE also issued a recall notice to all health establishments, as it had ordered 3.7 million units of the product at a cost of 7.5 million euros.
At the time, the agriculture minister said he was not informed of the matter until the very night the schools were alerted and that he had ordered an investigation into why he had not been alerted earlier.
But copies of emails exchanged between the HSE and the Department of Agriculture show that the department was aware of the problem almost a month earlier and advised the HSE to stop using the product more than two weeks before it was recalled.
On September 29, a member of the HSE procurement team contacted an official from the Department of Agriculture and sent him an email saying “follow up on the ViraPro issue.”
On October 7, the Department of Agriculture official sent an email to the HSE to inform it that the department would issue stop notices to HSE warehouses that store the ViraPro product.
They added: “In the meantime, I highly recommend removing all the ViraPro sanitizer you currently have in use at the HSE.”
The department issued a detention notice the following day, October 8.
But it took more than two weeks before the HSE formally issued a recall notice.
On the afternoon of October 22, the Department of Agriculture sent an email to HSE to notify it that the ViraPro disinfectant had been removed from its biocidal product registry with immediate effect.
He said it was no longer legal for use or sale in Ireland and should be withdrawn from circulation with immediate effect. The HSE issued its withdrawal notice the following day.
At the time, the Department of Education said it was first notified about the removal of the ViraPro product from the Department of Agriculture registry by phone two days before issuing its alert to schools.
But he said that when he was first alerted, “the details of the public health problems and concerns that arose were not available at the time.”
Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson said it was “unbelievable” that the HSE took two weeks to issue a withdrawal notice.
David Cullinane has asked the HSE to explain what he described as a “delay in taking decisive action.”
He said: “This new information again exposes the miscommunication between the Minister of Agriculture and his department and the lack of more urgent action on the part of [the] HSE on such an important issue. “
Labor education spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said they are still awaiting answers from what he described as the ViraPro “debacle”.
He said it was “depressing” and “not good enough” that different government departments were not communicating effectively in a pandemic.
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