‘Extremely annoying’ - HSE Chief on Beacon Hospital decision to give leftover vaccines to private school teachers

A decision by the Beacon Hospital to give up to 20 “leftover vaccines” to teachers of St Gerard’s private school in Bray on Tuesday has been described as “extremely annoying” by HSE CEO Paul Reid.

In a statement today, Beacon Hospital CEO Michael Cullen acknowledged the hospital’s actions were “not in line with the sequencing guidelines in place from the HSE”.

Under HSE guidelines, all hospitals are instructed to have a standby list constructed using the sequencing document should any additional doses become available on a particular day.

The Beacon Hospital said their decision to select teachers for the excess doses was based on a zero wastage policy and was made “under time pressure”.

The hospital declined to comment on why the school was selected for vaccination by the Beacon.

"There are very clear guidelines re-communicated out in early January and on a regular basis,” HSE chief Mr Reid told Morning Ireland, reacting to the story which initially appeared in the Irish Daily Mail.

“There can be no ambiguity around how you arrange vaccination clinics, how back up lists should be organised in advance.

"It's extremely annoying, it's extremely frustrating for the public - and for myself and the HSE. It's hard for us to reach out and be over all the vaccination processes that are going on. I cannot condone when something like this happens."

The Beacon Hospital said the additional doses came about due to 200 “no shows” for scheduled appointments of HSE employees “as a result of people being double booked at the Aviva”.

“Beacon Hospital immediately liaised with the HSE, and the majority of these excess vaccines were subsequently used for HSE staff who were redirected to Beacon Hospital throughout the afternoon,” the Hospital said.

Late on Tuesday, it became apparent the doses would be left over and “a decision was made to administer the left-over vaccine to teachers who were in a position to get to the Centre within the exceptionally short timeframe required”, the hospital said .

In a statement, Beacon CEO Michael Cullen apologised for “the upset that this decision has caused” and said the hospital is updating their “approach to our back up list to ensure that this situation does not arise again.”

Paul Reid said the HSE expects “all services to comply” with vaccination programme guidelines and that any leftover vaccines should be utilised in line with “a backup list which would be in line with our sequence protocols."

St Gerard’s school had “no comment” to make when asked about the administration of the vaccines to their staff.

Online Editors