Breaches to vaccine queue are 'frustrating' says HSE boss

Paul Reid said that it was “completely wrong” for someone to be vaccinated when they are not exposed to a healthcare setting.

The head of the HSE has said that incidents where there have been breaches to the vaccine queue are “frustrating” and “annoying”.

Paul Reid said that incidents of people skipping the queue to get a vaccine “breaches” the basis of what the programme is about.

He said that the vaccination programme is based on a high level of trust and that the vast majority of the public are waiting their turn.

Mr Reid said that it was “completely wrong” for someone to be vaccinated when they are not exposed to a healthcare setting.

He added that some people working in hospitals who were not in the direct frontline had to be vaccinated to protect hospital settings.

Addressing potential abuses of the internal portal for HSE workers to register for a vaccine, Mr Reid said it was an abuse of trust and not a failing of the portal.

He said that the HSE has strengthened the validation process to make sure legitimate people are getting the jab.

Recent incidents around people outside of the current vaccine priority cohort being vaccinated has caused anger in some parts.  

It was reported last week that a doctor at the Coombe Woman and Infants Hospital took two doses of Covid-19 vaccine home to give to his family.

In a separate incident, the Beacon Hospital vaccinated teachers at a private schooling Wicklow.

Paul Reid. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland.

On Friday, the HSE confirmed that 1,329 healthcare workers were scheduled for jabs at Dublin's Citywest vaccination centre, but only 757 attended.

Mr Reid reassured the public that when issues emerge with vaccine programme, they are being dealt with.

He also supported the Government’s changes to the vaccination priority list, saying the purpose of the programme is to prevent hospitalisations and deaths.

On Saturday, Mr Reid announced that the country will have administered one million doses by the end of next week.

He said that “well over 900,000” doses will have been administered by this weekend.

Mr Reid added that Good Friday saw one of the “highest days so far for the vaccine administration” and that “April and May will see the programme scale up further again”.

The National Public Health Emergency Team yesterday confirmed that there had been two additional deaths related to Covid-19.

Nphet added that there had been a further 511 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.