TECH SETBACK ON THE VACCINE
Personal details recorded on PAPER before being inputted into ‘cumbersome’ computer system
UNDER-PRESSURE HSE staff are forced to record highly sensitive vaccine data on paper, the Irish Daily Mail has learned. They have to write out personal information on paper first, and then put it into the ‘cumbersome’ computer system.
As the Government promises to roll out the jab to 35,000 people a week, politicians are ‘deeply concerned’ as it emerged that the health workers are working with an IT system that is not yet fully functional.
With a new strain of Covid sweeping the country and hospitals dealing with a surge in admissions, the HSE staff have revealed their difficulties using the computer system, some of whom were unable to get access yesterday.
The health executive said the issue is being addressed and ‘no vaccinations
were delayed’ due to the IT problems. The paper-based system is preventing the daily reporting of people being vaccinated. This was confirmed to party leaders at a briefing with chairman of the High Level Covid-19 Vaccination Taskforce, Professor Brian MacCraith, and HSE Chief Paul Reid last night.
A health executive spokeswoman said that ‘most sites’ were recording on to the system but gave no timeline for when the process would be ended.
Mr Reid told a briefing yesterday that 15,314 vaccinations had been administered since
December 29, meaning that around 11,000 shots were administered so far this week.
He and senior Government figures have said they will vaccinate 35,000 people this week, and every other week.
Nursing staff first record sensitive personal details, with PPS numbers being used as unique identifiers, on paper.
They then manually input the personal data into the system, with each person having around 20 different information points.
Prior to the jab being given the identity of the person is verified. A paper consent form is provided to the individual, read to them, if needed, and signed. Independent TD for Kildare South Cathal Berry, who became the first Dáil deputy to receive the vaccine, when he helped administer doses yesterday, said the process should be electronic.
‘Ideally, there should be no paper records and it should all be done electronically but you’re always going to have teething problems,’ he said.
The IT system, developed by tech giants IBM and Salesforce, will be continually updated as it is expanded to be rolled out for use by GPs, pharmacies and mass vaccination centres. The database records personal information such as name, address, contact details etc, ethnicity and whether an interpreter is required.
Other details include where the vaccine was administered, when and which model of vaccine.
However, it also stores details of people who refuse the vaccine and their reasons f or doing so and whether a follow-up is required.
The HSE will ‘follow up’ with people who simply don’t show up to their appointment, but not with people who say they simply don’t want the jab, it has said.
Staff will also log any adverse reactions to the vaccine and the action taken, such as referral to a GP or to hospital.
They will also record the information when someone who has received the vaccine dies. This is because the HSE wants to gather as much personal data as possible for analysis and to help medical staff understand the vaccine in greater detail.
Labour Party leader Alan Kelly said it was ‘ deeply concerning’ that ‘ we are now ramping up vaccinations but we don’t have watertight IT system architecture in place to gather the i nformation without having to use paper’.
He said: ‘The data that will be
‘Manual input is not good practice’
gathered has to be accurate, this is critically important, potential errors happen. Obviously, when you have to manually input data it’s just not good practice,’ he said.
Mr Kelly said the ability to report daily vaccination figures was important to give people hope. ‘All I want to see is a system in place that will allow the HSE to report daily the number of people who have been vaccinated… to ensure we give people hope so they can see the increasing number of people being vaccinated on a day-by-day basis, instead of always just getting the number of new Covid cases,’ he said.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said t hat a standard t emplate f or uploading data was provided to hospitals and nursing homes.
‘Vaccination data is transferred from the hospital or nursing home, this data is sent via an encrypted network to the HSE,’ she said.
‘All data which is not collected in ‘real time’ is being recorded in the system afterwards.
She said that data is not transferred outside the application.
The IT system does not record if someone catches Covid-19 after being vaccinated.
Instead, the HSE said that the data will be matched with the Covid Care Tracker, to establish if someone contracts the virus after receiving the vaccine, which is intended to be 95% effective.
The HSE last night confirmed to this newspaper that it has not yet submitted a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to the Data Protection Commissioner and that engagement is ongoing. Those who present for a vaccine first have their identity verified, to ensure that they are eligible to get it. They then sign a consent form.
The type of vaccine they have received is also recorded, along with the date that they received their first jab as well as the date of their second shot.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the HSE received a delivery of the Moderna vaccine hours after it was approved on Wednesday.
Mr Donnelly said the Government expects to receive around 110,00 doses of the vaccine in the first quarter of the year.
The European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine.
Vaccination is ‘an important control measure in outbreaks of infectious disease’, the HSE said recently, and added that public health officials would advise Covid-19 vaccinators administering doses of the vaccine in care facilities.