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Standby list of frontline healthcare workers should be in place for any leftover vaccines, HSE says

A HSE document says “every effort should be made” to ensure vaccines are given to frontline healthcare workers.

A HSE DOCUMENT on Covid-19 vaccination of frontline healthcare workers has said there should be a standby list of healthcare workers available to avoid any waste in the instance of leftover vaccines. 

The document published on 12 January also said that vaccination centres were initially based at locations with “access to sufficient numbers of staff to ensure that the vaccine is used” which “raises geographical equity of access for people who do not work at large centres”. 

It was reported earlier that some family members of Coombe Hospital staff received leftover Covid-19 vaccine doses on 8 January.

The HSE document, which was approved by Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry, outlined that “every effort should be made” to ensure vaccines are given to frontline healthcare workers “rather than given primarily to people later in the sequence who work in the institution that hosts the vaccination centre”. 

It said this should be done by having a list of frontline healthcare workers on standby. 

“If a vaccination centre has the vaccine and the capacity to administer 200 vaccines per day (for example) they should administer the vaccine to the 200 frontline healthcare workers earliest in sequence order who are able to attend on the day.

If frontline healthcare workers earlier in the sequence order are not available to attend they should proceed to frontline healthcare workers later in the sequence order (no dose should be wasted).

“Centres should establish standby lists of frontline healthcare workers later in the
sequence order that are available at short notice and that are randomly selected
from the lists for vaccination in the event that frontline healthcare workers earlier in
the sequence order do not attend or cannot receive the vaccine,” the document said.

It added that it is “necessary” to consider the sequencing of vaccination of frontline healthcare workers, which is “inevitable disappointing and frustrating” for people who see their colleagues get vaccinated ahead of them.

The document said centres should also consider creating lists of “other healthcare workers” who are not in direct patient contact but who are available at short notice.

These would be randomly selected from the vaccination lists “if for any reason frontline healthcare workers are not available and the alternative is that vaccine dose expires”, the guidance states.

‘Geographical equity’

The document also said that vaccination centres were initially based at locations with “access to sufficient numbers of staff to ensure that the vaccine is used” which “raises issues of geographical equity and equity of access for people who work do not work at large centres”. 

This guidance document was released on 12 January by the HSE. TheJournal.ie has asked the HSE to clarify whether similar advice was issued before this date to vaccination centres.

The Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital said 16 prepared vaccine doses were left over on the evening of 8 January and “to ensure that vaccines were not wasted they were administered to family members of employees of the hospital”.

“Of the 16 recipients, nine were over 70 and the remaining seven were of varying age. It would not be appropriate for the hospital to comment on the individuals involved,” a spokesperson for the hospital said.

The story was first reported by the Irish Times last night. 

The HSE has outlined that once a vaccine is removed from the fridge, it must be diluted within two hours.

Once a vaccine is diluted, it must be used within six hours.

“Any unused or partially unused diluted vials must be discarded when this time has been reached,” the HSE said. 

Speaking to the media this afternoon, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said he was concerned about what happened a the Coombe. 

“There should be no vaccines going into the bin… but there aren’t ‘spare vaccines’ in Ireland,” Harris said. 

The Minister said there was either a protocol for “spare” vaccines which wasn’t followed, “or perhaps more worryingly, there isn’t a protocol at all”. 

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    Mute Peter B
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    Apr 28th 2021, 9:34 PM

    Archdiocese and children are two words that should not be in the same sentence.

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    Mute Ian Downes
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    Apr 28th 2021, 10:40 PM

    @Peter B: I was just going to comment that exact sentence. It’s incredible that the catholic church would be let anywhere near children, or women, or anyone at this stage.

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    Mute Barry Somers
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    Apr 29th 2021, 6:02 AM

    @Ian Downes: and yet people think it’s fine for them to run 90% of our schools.

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    Mute Derek Moran
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    Apr 28th 2021, 9:42 PM

    Honestly who would ever leave a child alone with a priest these days?

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    Mute sean o'dhubhghaill
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    Apr 28th 2021, 9:54 PM

    @Derek Moran: The vast, vast majority of priests were, and are, decent people. But, hell, a good generalisation makes a good soundbite.

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    Mute Mango mango
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    Apr 28th 2021, 9:57 PM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: do you have children? And would you?

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    Mute Lorcan OReilly
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    Apr 28th 2021, 10:02 PM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: really so the majority of them were speaking out against abuse and helping bring offenders to justice?

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    Mute Barry Somers
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    Apr 29th 2021, 6:06 AM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: it doesn’t matter if the vast majority of them are decent.

    The organisation is rotten to the core.

    It was the Vatican who wrote the rules to move abusing priests to other parishes, it was the Vatican that wrote the rules about silencing victims, it is the Vatican that refuses to this day to release countless records to governments and the United nations.

    It was the Vatican who sent people over to a commission in Ireland and told victims they were lieing and only in it for the money.

    Imagine if the GAA did all this. What same person who deal with the GAA as a whole afterwards?

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    Mute Derek Moran
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    Apr 29th 2021, 7:32 AM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: I used to look after the IT for a bunch of them. I’ve seen their viewing history. Let’s just say it doesn’t correspond with their teachings.

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    Mute Barry Somers
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    Apr 28th 2021, 9:50 PM

    Church can’t be bothered to compensate abuse victims, spending money on child protection is a low priority.

    They have the money, it’s just tied up in assets, mainly land which they won’t sell.

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    Mute Mango mango
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    Apr 28th 2021, 10:02 PM

    @Barry Somers: lay management companies have the money, they have it tied up on purpose. It really shows how much they care.

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    Mute Jukebox Jim
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    Apr 28th 2021, 9:45 PM

    Neighbourhood cat ‘committed to protecting mice’ despite slaughtering mice at every available opportunity…

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    Mute Bunny Johnson
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    Apr 29th 2021, 11:19 AM

    @Jukebox Jim: superb analogy!

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    Mute Robert Thomas
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    Apr 28th 2021, 10:28 PM

    “and monitors the activities of priests known to have abused children in the past in order to minimise the chance of them doing so again.”

    I know a better way to make sure it never happens again.

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    Mute Amanda Ui Fhaircheallaigh
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    Apr 28th 2021, 9:40 PM

    Surely, the archdiocese is half as committed as protecting children

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    Mute ÓDuibhír Abú
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    Apr 28th 2021, 10:16 PM

    @Amanda Ui Fhaircheallaigh: Wonder did ArchBishop take a pay cut.

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    Mute The only INFP in Ireland
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    Apr 28th 2021, 10:49 PM

    ‘moniters the activities of priests known to have abused children in the past in order to minimise the chance of them doing so again’ Is this a joke?!

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    Mute Paul Whitehead
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    Apr 29th 2021, 8:23 AM

    This staff cut certainly sends out the wrong message, though I expect the majority of comments here would be exactly the same if they had doubled the number of staff working in child protection.

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    Mute alan
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    Apr 29th 2021, 12:40 PM

    @Paul Whitehead: Using the analogy above, two cats looking after the mice isnt exactly better than one

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