HSE lacks data on flu vaccine’s links to narcolepsy

Information gaps in computer systems supposed to record patient and vaccination data is creating head-aches for the HSE in finding the number of people suffering narcolepsy after getting the swine flu vaccine.

Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Irish Examiner show the HSE could not rely on its HIPE system — which is supposed to record details of all patient discharges from acute hospitals — because it was incomplete.

At a meeting in April to look at the issue of a possible association between Pandemrix and narcolepsy, health officials were told by Dr Howard Johnson of the HSE’s health intelligence unit that there was room for error in HIPE. For instance, the Mater Private Hospital, which runs a sleep disorders clinic, stopped putting data into the system in 2009.