Pregnant women will not get vaccine from GPs

Pregnant women will be unable to receive the whooping cough vaccine from their GPs after medics insisted it is not their job to administer the jab.

The stand-off, which is being discussed by medical unions and the HSE, comes at a time when whooping cough cases have doubled in the last year, with two infants dying, and GPs are battling to avoid a €70m fee cut.

In a joint statement, the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish College of General Practitioners said members will not be administering the jab.

They said the unions believe “the most appropriate setting for administration of this vaccine is in the public health setting and not in general practice”. The statement read: “The increase in pertussis [the medical term for whooping cough] is a public health issue.

“It is therefore surprising that the HSE public health service is responding in the manner in which it is by delegating all responsibility for its management to general practice rather than directly responding to the issue itself.

“There is no contract in place for GPs to provide this additional service and the IMO, as the representative body for GPs, has not been consulted in this regard.”

They added that “legal clarification” is needed to ensure GPs who provide the vaccine are covered by the clinical indemnity scheme, and that until this takes place the unions do not want any member to do so.

An HSE spokesperson said management sent a response on the issue to the IMO and ICGP “very recently”.

This response, which the HSE declined to reveal, is expected to be with the unions over the weekend.

The HSE asked GPs last month to provide the vaccine and booster vaccine to women between 28 and 32 weeks of pregnancy.

This decision, which the HSE stressed “was widely disseminated to GPs last year”, came as a result of new guidelines from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee of the College of Physicians.

The row comes at a time when GPs and HSE management are due to enter tense negotiations over plans to cut overall GP fees by €70m.

The IMO said earlier this week that this move — which the HSE has already included in its national service plan for the year — could result in waiting lists for GPs.

Just over 200 whooping cough cases were reported in Ireland during 2011. Last year, the figure was more than 430, including two infants who died.