Trainee psychiatrists 'have difficulty' getting vaccine

In a statement, the HSE said it was rolling out the vaccine programme “in line with the Provisional Vaccine Allocation Groups” that the Government published on December 8. File picture: PA

Many of the country’s trainee psychiatrists are depending on “local goodwill” in getting Covid-19 vaccinations, unlike their other medical colleagues in training, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland (CPI) has said.

As well as the risks to the trainee psychiatrists, the college points to the risk being presented to patients.

Dr William Flannery, president of the CPI, said they had received reports of trainee psychiatrists who are covering emergency departments who have not been vaccinated, while other medical trainees in the same EDs were being vaccinated.

“National policy does not support that, but the problem appears to be implementation at regional and local level,” said Dr Flannery.

He explained that psychiatrists come under a different governance structure than other trainee doctors, but said the HSE should look at this from a “patient point of view”.

He said that what is happening in some cases is that trainee psychiatrists are being included in the vaccinations “depending on local good will and good local personal relationships”.

There are around 350 trainee psychiatrists in the country.

He said the wider problem, which the college had raised with the HSE, of differing treatment of the psychiatric services to mainstream services in terms of vaccinations of patients/residents and staff appeared to be resolving itself.

In a statement, the HSE said it was rolling out the vaccine programme “in line with the Provisional Vaccine Allocation Groups” that the Government published on December 8.

It said this was “critical given the limited supply of vaccine”.

It said the HSE had developed principles for the sequencing of vaccinations to frontline workers in line with these groups.