New vaccine roll-out deal will see over 70s get shots from GPs

A new vaccine roll-out deal agreed on Friday for almost half a million elderly patients will see most get their shots in a local GP practice. Photo: File

A new vaccine roll-out deal agreed on Friday for almost half a million elderly patients will see most get their shots in a local GP practice, but some rural patients will face longer journeys.

Elderly patients attending small practices with fewer than 200 over-70s will need to travel to the closest larger practice, or attend a vaccination centre in an agreed city.

This affects patients at about 400 practices, and the deal suggests Cork, Galway and Dublin for vaccination centres.

All elderly patients will be invited individually to their appointments, and do not need to book slots.

There will be relief to see the start state of February 15th remains in place despite a switch this week from the AstraZeneca vaccine to two mRNA vaccines for this age group.

A series of meetings took place on until late on Friday between the Irish Medical Organization, the Irish College of General Practitioners, the HSE and the health minster Stephen Donnelly.

Dr Maitiu O Faolain from the IMO GP Committee said there was initial shock on Wednesday when the new advice was announced, but now it seems patients will face fewer changes than expected.

“Covid is a war,” he said. “No plan survives contact with the enemy. The vast bulk of patients will get their vaccine in general practice.” The over-70s will all receive either the PfizerBioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

The vast majority will get the Pfizer jab as deliveries are running at 40,000 doses weekly currently, compared to 10,000 for Moderna.

A series of meetings took place on until late on Friday between the Irish Medical Organization, the Irish College of General Practitioners, the HSE and the health minster Stephen Donnelly. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

The deal covers about 490,000 patients, starting with 72,000 over 85s, then moving on to patients between 80 and 84, 75 to 79 and 70 to 74.

This is about 10, 000 more people than were first estimated for this group. The HSE is now including residents in retirement homes run by the clergy, and other non - HIQA homes for the elderly who were not covered by the nursing home programme.

Dr O’ Faolain said there will be pressure on the HSE around delivering the vaccines from the National Cold Chain Centre in Dublin to about 2,500 GP practices nationally.

The Pfizer vaccine must be used within five days of defrosting from the original ultra-low temperature. Vials must be used within six hours.

Even though the Moderna vaccine has a 30-day window Ireland’s supply of this is so low it will not play a significant role.

Some reconfiguration of the IT system is needed for recording of the data according to Dr Lucy Jessop, director at the National Immunisation Office HSE.

However, Dr O’ Faolain expects patients will not face delays from this.

He said: “Supply has been the enemy from day 1. General practice with 6,000 vaccinators could do half a million people a week without skipping a beat.

“We don’t have half a million vaccines now. By May the country will, and people will go to their GP in large numbers at the evenings and weekends. They predict about 16m doses here by the of the summer.” Dr Denis McCauley, chair of the IMO GP committee told doctors on Friday night: “While the change of vaccine type will present some new challenges we are confident that the body of GPs around the country are anxious to get started and deliver for their patients. One thing we know is that COVID consistently throws new challenges at us but we will rise to those challenges.”