Chaos on swine flu frontline

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.