A SHOT IN THE PARK...
Doctors and Hospitals at nurses get jabs ‘surge capacity’ at pop-up sites as ICU cases up
ALMOST all GPS in the State have now received their first Covid-19 vaccine as the HSE last night confirmed hospitals are now in surge capacity.
Around 1,800 doctors and primary care staff will get the jab at three pop-up vaccine centres in Dublin, Laois and Galway this weekend.
GPS and nurses were the first in Ireland to get the Moderna vaccine at centres in St Mary’s Hospital in the Phoenix Park, the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise and in Galway.
In all 1,000 medical staff will be vaccinated in two days at tents erected by the National Ambulance Service and the Army in the grounds of St Mary’s Hospital in Dublin.
Dr Philip Crowley of the HSE said he anticipated all 3,600 GPS and nurse managers in the State will have received both doses by the end of next month. Once all GPS have been vaccinated they will be able to administer vaccines to the general population.
Dr Crowley said this should happen once the Oxford/astrazeneca vaccine is rolled out.
Around half the GPS had already received the vaccine in a nursing home or hospital prior to yesterday’s mass vaccination.
Dr Crowley said: “We will be getting more Moderna to try and mop up other primary care staff.
“We will energetically be vaccinating everybody in nursing homes and all their staff in parallel.
“We hope to be getting more of this Moderna vaccine in two to three weeks time.”
Dr Amy Morgan, a GP based in Co Louth, described receiving the vaccine as a “huge relief ” and said medics fear contracting the virus and spreading it.
She added: “We are still seeing patients on a daily basis.
“It should give us that confidence to keep general practice going.
“Crucially when the vaccine is rolled out to the general population, we will
We are still seeing patients on a daily basis DR AMY MORGAN GP BASED IN CO LOUTH
be ready. Louth has stubbornly high levels of Covid.”
Meanwhile HSE chief Paul Reid yesterday confirmed hospitals had gone into surge capacity as ICU numbers climbed.
It came as health officials announced a further 60 deaths from the virus and another 3,231 cases of Covid-19. It brings the pandemic death toll here to 2,595 with 169,780 confirmed cases since the start of the outbreak. As of lunchtime yesterday there were 191 Covid-19 patients in intensive care. Mr Reid confirmed the agreement signed with private hospitals has been initiated to cater for spillover from the public health service. The HSE boss said there are also 250 Covid patients outside of ICU that are requiring significant assistance such as additional oxygen.
He told Saturday with Katie Hannon on RTE Radio: “We have formally gone into surge capacity.
“In terms of beds, we now have 313 available [ICU] beds, up from 285 before surge capacity.”
Mr Reid assured people “we are coping” and if anyone needed urgent
care, they will receive it. The head of the HSE also urged the Beacon Hospital to reconsider its decision not to sign up to an agreement between the HSE and private hospitals.
The Dublin hospital is the only one of 18 private hospitals not to agree to a “safety net” deal that allows the HSE to use private beds if needed. Mr Reid said he had to “genuinely express my extreme frustration that the Beacon hasn’t signed up to that agreement”.
In a robust statement the Beacon said it was “already wearing the green jersey” and doing all it can to support the public health system.
It added: “Beacon Hospital is currently treating more public patients than the HSE agreement envisages or asks for and has been doing this for over four months.”
It said public patients occupy over 55 % of its ICU.
It added the reason it would not agree to hand over clinical control to the HSE was that the hospital was 70% vacant when it did so last March.
Earlier yesterday Dr Colm Henry, HSE chief clinical officer, warned there could be another full year of restrictions before enough vaccines were given to make it safe. He told Raidio na Gaeltachta: “We’re in the middle of the main wave now... we’re giving out the vaccine as fast as we’re getting it in. “The truth is that the public in general won’t have protection from Covid-10 for at least a year.”