Private hospitals anxious about 'hit and miss' supply of Covid vaccines for their frontline staff

All private hospitals, except the Beacon hospital, have signed up to a new agreement with the HSE to support public hospitals during the current Covid surge.

Frontline healthcare staff in private hospitals in Dublin, Galway and Limerick "urgently" need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 if they are to support the national response and take patients from public hospitals.

As a new agreement between the HSE and private hospitals kicked in over the weekend to deal with a surge in infections and hospitalisations, concerns have been raised over the availability of Covid-19 vaccines for some private hospital facilities.

The Medical and Dental Consultants Association (MDCA) has warned that frontline staff in private facilities need access to the vaccine this week if they are to take patients from public hospitals.

Doctors and nurses on frontline today in Private Hospitals helping escalating Covid Pandemic. We urgently need Vaccinations to protect our staff; no sign of any in Dublin or Galway. Please act now so we can assist safely .@paulreiddublin @HSELive @CMOIreland @DonnellyStephen

— Medical & Dental Consultants Association (@MDCA_Ireland) January 10, 2021

The rollout of vaccines to private hospitals that have signed up to support the national Covid-19 response has been “hit and miss” to date, with several hospitals unclear when they can access the vaccine, the association said.

All private hospitals, except the Beacon hospital, have signed up to a new agreement with the HSE to support public hospitals during the current Covid surge, which has seen almost 1,600 people being admitted to hospital with the virus.

While the Covid-19 vaccine has been made available in private hospital facilities in Cork and Waterford among others, several facilities in Dublin, Galway and Limerick have not had access to date.

Over the weekend more than 1,000 staff were vaccinated at the Bons Secours private hospital in Cork and more than 100 healthcare workers were also vaccinated in the Bons facility in Tralee, while vaccines have also been rolled out in facilities run by the UPMC private hospital group.

Vaccines, however, have not yet been made available at the Bons facility in Limerick or at the Galway Clinic, as well as at a number of private Dublin facilities, including the Bons hospital in Glasnevin, Blackrock Clinic, and the Hermitage Clinic.

Without access to the vaccine these facilities may not be in a position to take patients and support public hospitals, the association warned.

The issue of vaccine allocation is being discussed between the individual chief executives of both public and private hospitals today.

Dr Fergal McGoldrick, who is acting spokesperson for the association, described the situation as “urgent”.

“There’s no planning behind this. It’s hit and miss,” the orthopaedic surgeon at the Hermitage Clinic said.

“It’s happening at a local level and some hospitals appear to be more organised than others,” he added.

Some media reports of administrative staff in hospitals receiving the vaccine were of concern given the need to prioritise frontline staff, he said.

“The vaccines are meant to go out to all frontline facilities, whether they are public or private is irrelevant. All of these hospitals have casualty departments that are admitting patients,” Dr McGoldrick said.

The Bons in Glasnevin has been accepting patients from Beaumont hospital, which has one of the highest infection rates at the moment, and staff there have not been vaccinated.

Private hospitals, he said, were keen to help and take patients in the next 48-72 hours but needed access to Covid-19 vaccines to protect staff and keep the facilities virus-free.

“If we want to take a big surge of patients in the next week, staff have to be vaccinated,” Dr McGoldrick said.

“There is rampant spread of the virus in public hospitals at the moment. If they want to get patients across to what are currently clean hospitals, that don’t have Covid, if they don't protect these facilities, the virus will come in like a rocket. If that happens private hospitals won’t be able to take patients,” he added.