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Chaos on swine flu frontline

By Catherine Shanahan and Sean O’Riordan - Tuesday, November 03, 2009

FAMILY doctors have described the first phase in the roll-out of the Health Service Executive (HSE) swine flu vaccination programme as "chaotic" and "flawed".

Yesterday, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) claimed practices that had opted out of the programme had nonetheless received doses of the vaccine, while others who had signed up were left without.

"Certainly, given the vaccine is in short supply, the HSE needs to redouble its efforts to make sure the list of those it is supplying is accurate. Clearly, it hasn’t been to date," said Dr Ronan Boland, chair of the IMO GP committee.

Dr Boland said from a GP’s viewpoint, the scheme was "very flawed".

GPs who reported difficulties yesterday included Dr Tadhg Grufferty, member of a practice in Glanmire, a suburb of Cork with a catchment area of 18,000. Dr Grufferty said his practice had filled out all the necessary forms early last month, but to date had received just syringes and needles. A HSE spokeswoman admitted there had been supply difficulties, but said she expected the situation to be resolved today.

On the Beara peninsula, where no GPs are participating, those who require a vaccine face a 250km round trip to the nearest HSE clinic in Clonakilty, West Cork.

In Cabinteely, Co Dublin, Dr Stephen Murphy, said his practice, the Park Clinic, had received 160 doses of the vaccine last Wednesday, but expected it to have run out by yesterday evening.

"We’re not getting any more for two weeks and we’re supposed to be at the frontline, supposed to be dealing with urgent cases," Dr Murphy told RTÉ radio.

Both Dr Murphy and Dr Jim Keely, a member of Seabury medical centre in Malahide, accused the HSE of "disinformation and misinformation" in relation to the vaccination programme.

"It is really very difficult to find a public health programme that has in our view been so poorly handled," said Dr Murphy.

Dr Doorley admitted on RTÉ radio that "in retrospect we could have done this better".

The HSE spokeswoman said they were aware there had been some problems with distribution, but that they were "doing everything possible to iron out difficulties", including putting additional vehicles on the road. She said 100,000 additional vaccines would be delivered to GP surgeries this week and another 100,000 next week. More than 1,500 people received the vaccine yesterday on the first day of the campaign.

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