JAB ROLL-OUT ‘HAS ALL THE HALLMARKS OF SHAMBLES’

THE vaccine roll-out has ‘all the hallmarks of a HSE shambles’, a leading GP has warned.

Dr Ruairi Hanley, a GP in Navan, Co. Meath, told the Irish Daily Mail last night that GPs had yet to be told how they will administer the vaccine.

‘There’s no sense of urgency,’ the medic said.

‘In Portugal when they got the vaccine they were administering the next day.

‘We spent three days taking pictures of it in a fridge and getting likes on Twitter.’

Dr Hanley added that it was ‘very far from reassuring’ that GPs had yet to be contacted by the HSE about the vaccine roll-out, stressing that it may become necessary to cooperate with the North.

‘In the weeks ahead, the gap between the two jurisdictions on this island in terms of vaccination delivery will become more and more obvious. No amount of photographs will alter that reality,’ he said.

‘If our own nation is incapable of protecting i ts frontline workers in a timely fashion, then, frankly, to protect ourselves, our patients, our staff and our families, I feel we have a duty to ask the North for help – especially in the context of exponential growth of case numbers in border areas.’

Asked about the Irish ambulance service providing assistance in the North, Dr Hanley said it would be a ‘quid pro quo’.

He also said he had written to the North’s Minister for Health, Robin Swann, asking for GPs in border areas to be included in their vaccination programme.

So far, 4,000 people have received the vaccine in Ireland.

Around 35,000 doses are expected to be administered this week.