Thousands will have summer wait for flu jab

THOUSANDS of people will have to wait until next summer before receiving the swine flu vaccine because of delays in accessing the seven million doses ordered by the Government.

Health Minister Mary Harney yesterday told the Dáil it will take between six to eight months to vaccinate the entire population: “The vaccine is arriving in small quantities due to the demand for the vaccine worldwide,” she said.

Children between six months and four years will start getting vaccines from next week. “After that the focus will be on the over 65s and school children, with the rest of the population coming after that. It could be up to eight months before we get to everyone,” said Ms Harney.

“It depends on the take-up and the speed with which we get stocks of vaccine,” she said.

More than 7,500 people have been vaccinated in Health Service Executive clinics since Monday, but the total number is likely to be far higher with most people in the “at risk” groups receiving the vaccine from GPs.

Two Dublin maternity hospitals, the Coombe and Rotunda, yesterday announced they were restricting visitors from tomorrow because of the outbreak.

Labour’s health spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan said she was “alarmed and surprised” that it would take so much time to roll out the vaccine to everyone, and warned of the implications for the rest of the health services.

“If the same person is taken from his job for that length of time, assuming the HSE clinics will be consistently open, it will have an impact,” she said.

However, Ms Harney said it was not a logistics issue, but one of accessing supplies: “We cannot say with certainty when we will have the seven million doses we have ordered.

“The other issue that is emerging is if it will be necessary to have a second dose of one of the vaccines. If there is not, that will speed the process,” she said.

Ms Harney was due to attend the 90th anniversary celebration of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) yesterday but did not turn up because she did not have a voting “pair” in the Dáil that was debating the final stages of the NAMA Bill.

HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm also failed to turn up to the event where he would have faced questions from the mediaattending the conference about his €70,000 bonus for work carried out in 2007.

INO general secretary Liam Doran criticised Prof Drumm’s reconfiguration policy in the mid-west and the north-east and said the chief executive had not met with the INO or other health unions for 15 months.

Mr Doran told reporters that the organisation wrote to Prof Drumm six to eight months ago inviting him to the event and said he did not know why he decided to cancel at the last minute.

“We have not met Prof Drumm now for 15 months, nor has any union I believe, other than the medical organisations.

“We are saddened that we have not had as ongoing contact with Prof Drumm as we would have liked,” he said.

Mr Doran said the INO wanted to discuss Prof Drumm’s transformation programme, continuingaccident and emergency problems and the continuing attempt to reconfigure services in the north-east and mid-west.

He said there had been broken promises in relation to the reconfiguration of hospital services in the regions.

Since the closure of A&E services in Nenagh and Ennis hospitals, the A&E department at Limerick Regional Hospital had come under severe pressure.

“They have not put in place the elective work that was to be redirected toNenagh and to Ennis, so it is still all pouring into that funnel which is Dooradoyle in Limerick.”

And, he said, services at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda were in a state of collapse.

“It is a debacle in terms of quality of care, access to care and speed of care. The responsibility for that lies four-square on the shoulders of Prof Drumm,” he said.

Mr Doran said the special anniversary conference attended by around 700 nurses, including 300 students and addressed by President Mary McAleese, was to remember where they came from and where they were going.

“The issues that brought the initial 20 members together – pay, conditions of employment, education, workloads, remain as valid today as they were then,” he said.