GOVERNMENT REMAINS COMMITTED TO ‘NO FAULT’ SCHEME TO HELP VICTIMS WHEN VACCINATIONS DO UNINTENDED HARM

WHILE vaccination aims to protect the health of the nation, the Programme for Partnership Government seeks to put in place “a scheme, on a no-fault basis, that will respond to the needs of people with disability arising from vaccination”, according to a Department of Health spokesperson.

The policy aims for the scheme “to provide fair and just compensation for those who may have been injured by a vaccine, to reduce the costs to the State by providing an alternative to litigation and to maintaining public confidence in immunisation”.

The Department is developing a proposal for a vaccine damage scheme to be “based on evidence concerning vaccine damage schemes, legal advice and consultation with other Government bodies.

“This proposal will be influenced by the work of the Expert Group, chaired by Judge Meenan, which is considering alternative mechanisms for resolving clinical negligence claims and by evidence from the Health Research Board report on international approaches to such schemes which is currently being finalised,” she stated.

“Potential claims against the Minister for Health, the HSE and GlaxoSmithKline Biological SA, have been initiated by 90 individuals and, in 62 of these cases, formal legal proceedings have been issued.”

The plaintiffs allege personal injury in which they claim the development of narcolepsy resulted from the administration of the H1N1 pandemic vaccine.

“The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has received 95 reports with clinical information confirming a diagnosis of narcolepsy in individuals who received pandemic influenza vaccine,” she added.